Texas’ Ultra-Restrictive Abortion Law Partially Struck Down

Wendy Davis, winner

Remember Wendy Davis’ epic filibuster in the Texas legislature during the fight over abortion legislation? Remember that her filibuster forced Governor Miss Ricky Perry to call a second special session in order to allow the Taxes legislature to pass extremely restrictive new abortion laws?

Well, part of that legislation was struck down this week, on the heels of the news that those two special sessions of the Legislature cost the taxpayers in Texas $1.6 million dollars.

Yup, after spending months and months trying to find ways to save money, the Texas Legislature, and Governor Miss Ricky, spent a million-and-a-half dollars to pass legislation that has since been partially struck down.

Miss Ricky, loser

In a state where Governor Miss Ricky — who is certain to try and run at the White House in 2016 — calls himself a fiscal conservative. I guess that means he’s fiscally conservative if he doesn’t care about the issue but when he has a horse in the race — as in telling Texas women what they can and cannot do with their bodies and their healthcare — no expense is too great.

And after spending all that money, US District Judge Lee Yeakel blocked the provision in the law that required doctors performing abortions to have an agreement with a local hospital to admit patients, thereby foiling another attempt by the “pro-life” movement to use TRAP [Targeted Regulation ofAbortion Providers] laws to circumvent a woman’s constitutional right to choice.

The Court went on to point out that:

“By requiring abortion providers to have hospital admitting privileges, the evidence is that there will be abortion clinics that will close. The record reflects that 24 counties in the Rio Grande Valley would be left with no abortion provider because those providers do not have admitting privileges and are unlikely to get them.”

Of course, this was the legislature and Governor Miss Ricky’s plan all along; to pass a law that did not technically ban abortions, which is a violation of the Constitution, but to instead ban abortions by closing down providers.

Fortunately for Texas women and the pro-choice movement, Judge Yeakel’s ruling was a victory, but it still cost the Texas taxpayers $1.6 million dollars because of their fiscally conservative GOP government is not so fiscally conservative when it comes to certain issues.

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Random Musings

Maybe there’s hope for Texas yet ….

It seems a sure that that Texas state Senator Wendy Davis—of the marathon filibuster of an anti-abortion bill—will announce that she’s running for governor.

Yippee kay ay, mother**kers!

Of course, with Texas being kind of a hellhole of conservative politics, Davis will have a tough go of it, but she’s popular, outspoken and smart.

Something Texans haven’t had in their Governor’s office since 1994 when George W. Bush became Governor.

Like I said, maybe there’s hope …

A new TV season brings several new hot men to the small screen and Shallow Bob is here to tell you who some of them are and where you can find them.

First up—top row, left—is Diego Klattenhorf, on NBC’s The Blacklist. He’s FBI and hot. Next we have Stuart Townsend, an adulterous hottie on ABC’s Betrayal, followed by one of my favorite TV hot guys—last seen on Dexter before his character was killed off—the glorious Billy Brown, of CBS’s Hostages.

The bottom row—left to right—is Justin Hartley from ABC’s Revenge; he’s the bastard child of Victoria Grayson—the fabulous Madeleine Stowe. Next up is Sean Maguire, joining a long line of hot guys in leather pants, as Robin Hood on ABC’s Once Upon A Time; and lastly, we have Ryan Eggold, maybe a good guy, maybe a bad guy, on NBC’s The Blacklist.

Eye candy, y’all.

Former tennis star, and now a Swedish fashion brand, Björn Borg opened up a new online shopping site in Russia this week.

Nothing really exciting there, except for the quiet, not so subliminal advertising campaign that features a stack of single colored underwear forming the colors of the rainbow.

Lina Söderqvist, Marketing Director at Björn Borg:

“We are opening up for e-commerce on the Russian market. The opening advert is a way for us to reach Russian influencers. Björn Borg as a brand has always advocated equality on all levels. It is a human right to love and to make love to who-ever you choose and we want to make a point of that through the advert in the Moscow Times today.”

Bravo Björn.

New TV Season highlights ... and lowlights:

Kelly Clarkson playing against type on The Crazy Ones; she did bitchy very well, and also faked an orgasm onscreen. Too funny.

I DVR’d The Michael J Fox Show, watched the two episodes and then promptly removed from the 'record’ list. Cute, not funny. The laughs were mostly tee hee—and some, especially the ones about Parkinson’s disease—I didn’t like at all.

Homeland is back and better than ever except, Where’s Brody?

Following that is Masters of Sex which is very tit-illating—if you get my subtlety and not so much cock-illatiing. The first episode kind of bored me.

Rebel Wilson. No. Every single clip to promote that show she's on ... Fun something ... shows her clothes being ripped off and her , well, rather large body, strapped into Spanx. That isn't funny, y'all.

What are you watching?

Government shutdown.

Acting like The Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz this week, House Speaker John Boehner turned and walked away from reporters who asked him what he would say to the 800,000 federal employees now furloughed, without pay, due to the government shutdown.

He did speak for just 73 seconds and took just two questions before slinking back to the cesspool from whence he came:

“The House has made its position known very clearly. We believe we should fund government, and we think there ought to be basic fairness for all Americans under Obamacare.  The Senate has continued to reject our offers, but under the Constitution, there’s a way to resolve this problem and that is to go to conference and talk through your differences.  And I would hope that the Senate would accept our offer to go to conference and discuss this so that we can resolve this for the American people.”

Talk through differences? Talk?

You shut down the government putting almost a million people out of work.

As I blogged about HERE, last week New Jersey judge Mary Jacobson ruled that same-sex couples must be allowed to wed, saying, “[Now] that the federal government recognizes gay marriages, not doing so in New Jersey would violate the state constitution."

Then Governor Chris Christie—vociferously anti-marriage equality—stomped his hoof and appealed the judge’s ruling. Acting State Attorney General John Hoffman also requested a stay which would prevent same-sex couples from marrying "until the matter can be settled." Now, Lambda legal is in the fight:

"We're going to do everything we can to make sure same-sex couples can begin making plans to marry starting on the date set by the court - Oct 21st. We will file our opposition on Friday and we'll be making the case that we are likely to win and any delay in allowing same-sex couples to marry is too great a hardship to allow a stay."

It’s on in Jersey and I cannot wait to see Christie’s cream0-filled head explode when he loses; and then gleefully snort when he runs for the White House and tries to explain why he’s so anti-equality.

And further up there, ‘round Pennsylvania way, Democratic officials are appealing a ruling by Judge Dante Pellegrini that ordered Montgomery County Register of Wills, Bruce Hanes, to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

In Hanes' appeal, county lawyers who are supporting his case argued that the September 12 court order that stopped him from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples contained legal and factual errors.

Hanes issued 174 same-sex marriage licenses before a lower state court judge ordered him to stop the practice, saying that a county clerk did not have the authority to ignore state law. In an interview, Hanes contended the state's law conflicted with the U.S. Constitution.

"As we all know, when a law conflicts with the constitution, the constitution wins," said Hanes, 66, who is married and has two adult daughters.

C’mon Pennsylvania, and you, too, New Jersey, say I do to marriage equality.

This is the height of hilarity … or insanity.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. 

Despite Russia’s role as the main supplier of weapons to Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and despite his new anti-gay laws in Russia, an advocacy group has put Putin’s name forward because the former KGB agent “actively promotes settlement of all conflicts arising on the planet.”

Except for The Gays; those folks he wants jailed or dead.

The International Academy of Spiritual Unity and Cooperation of Peoples of the World made no mention of Putin’s ruthless and violent campaign against the separatists in Chechnya or the war he waged on Georgia, but instead points to his efforts to prevent a US air strike on the Syrian regime following a chemical gas attack in August.

While this seems shocking let’s also remember that both Stalin and Hitler got Nobel Peace prize nominations.

Just sayin’.

I #StandWithWendy

It could have happened; it was thisclose. Down there in Texas, of course it would be Texas, a bill very nearly passed that would virtually ban abortion. The measure would have banned abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and would have required all clinics to be graded as surgical centers, with all doctors required to have admitting privileges at hospitals. It's estimated that nearly all of the state's clinics wouldn't have been able to meet the new standards and would have to close.

Luckily, the clock ran out on ridiculousness in Texas. This time.

Senator Wendy Davis, a Democrat from Forth Worth, stood and spoke, not eating, not drinking, not taking time to visit the loo, in the hopes that time would run out and the Repugnants, Rethuglicans, Republicans in Texas wouldn’t be able to pass their anti-abortion bill.

"What purpose does this bill serve? And could it be, might it just be a desire to limit women's access to safe, healthy, legal, constitutionally protected abortions in the state of Texas?"—Wendy Davis

But, after three challenges to her speech were upheld, it seemed her filibuster attempt fell just short and as the Legislature voted their horrific bill into law, protesters in the gallery cheered, clapped and shouted Davis’ name from 11:45 p.m. to midnight and beyond.

So, it seems that Texas now joins a long list of states where Republican men are telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies except ….

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, acting as Senate president, initially said the voting began just before midnight, and several reports suggested that the bill had been passed after a 19-10 vote and would go to Governor, and Not Gay, Rick Perry. But, later on, Dewhurst announced that the vote had been held too late because of all that ruckus in the gallery.

And then men in Texas took their heads out of the vaginas of the women in Texas.

Dewhurst said that the special session had expired and the bill could not be “signed in the presence of the Senate … and therefore cannot be enrolled.” But then he suggested that Miss Ricky could immediately call another special session, and condemned the protesters for staging what they described as "a people's filibuster."

"I didn't lose control (of the chamber). We had an unruly mob."—David Dewhurst

Um, Lt. Governor, you are elected to do the job of the people and if the people want to be in that chamber and demand, vocally, vociferously, loudly, and acting a bit unruly, that is their right. You, sir, work for them. They pay your salary.

Unlike filibusters in Washington, D.C., where the senators talked nonstop about anything that came to mind, Wendy Davis was required to stand up, speak nonstop, not drink, not eat, not take a bathroom break and speak only about the topic on hand; she couldn’t even lean on her desk for support.

As the night wore on, Repugnants Rethuglicans Republicans won rulings that Davis had, in fact, broken the rules—for getting improper assistance from a colleague who adjusted her back brace and for straying from the topic. Then, late into the night, Davis ran afoul of a three-strikes-and-you're-out rule when Dewhurst upheld an objection that she had strayed from the topic again, this time by discussing a 2011 law involving sonograms and abortions, which he ruled was non-germane to the abortion bill.

That ruling opened the door for Senate Repugnant Rethuglican Republican majority to call for a straight up-or-down vote to end Davis' remarks. As the midnight deadline neared, raucous cheering and shouts erupted from the gallery during the roll call vote and the disruption halted Senate action for several minutes.

And that was all that was needed to deny the GOP yet another stab at telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies.

"My back hurts. I don't have a lot of words left."—Wendy Davis, praising the "determination and spirit of Texas women."

I, too, like the President, who Tweeted, “Something special is happening in Austin tonight” #StandWithWendy.

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