Part of the Voting Rights Act repealed

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/opinion/an-assault-on-the-voting-rights-act.html?_r=0

Took out the part where it says certain states have to go through congress to change their voting laws. It's a bunch of bullshit. The dissent is fantastic.

I'm too tired to discuss it. 3 hours of sleep because I witnessed the Texas Senate filibuster IRL at my job. Interestingly enough that same Senator has been frequently targeted in redistricting in order to get her out of office.

To anyone who doesn't know what this means, it basically means that all states are now allowed to make laws about voting without consulting the federal government (essentially). Texas has already made a law requiring voter IDs to vote. This means that minorities can easily be discriminated against by being practically barred from voting, just like in the '60s!

That filibuster was the most epic legislative shit ever! So proud of Senator Davis, the protestors, the internet, and real journalists. (Network news, what the FUCK?)

Good job. Yay for this particular loophole in due process.

  On 6/27/2013 at 4:13 PM, A/D said:

That filibuster was the most epic legislative shit ever! So proud of Senator Davis, the protestors, the internet, and real journalists. (Network news, what the FUCK?)

 

here here. this should happen more often.

  On 6/27/2013 at 4:13 PM, A/D said:

A/D, on 27 Jun 2013 - 09:13 AM, said:

 

That filibuster was the most epic legislative shit ever! So proud of Senator Davis, the protestors, the internet, and real journalists. (Network news, what the FUCK?)

 

Good job. Yay for this particular loophole in due process.

I was there from start to finish. Literally 15 meters from her. And yes, she was awesome. I hate to derail this, but I must comment.

As much as I value non-major network/non-mainstream news, even they were reporting inaccurate and out of context things. Their intent was right and sincere, but knowing those caught in the middle and stressed about certain aspects they were not responsible was upsetting to behold. I know media spin, lies, deceit, and well, basic manipulation and denial of reality and truth is a constant struggle, but actually being in the middle of it is surreal and sickening. I really wish I could say more right now, but professionally I can't.

I can finally cite this though: Update-on-SB5-TLO-actions

So I actually was very, very involved with the whole thing sorta, my job is pretty minimal during filibusters but I know all of the behind the scenes actions - I can't go into them in detail but I will say this - it was an absolute mess. So I'll talk about that instead, and it's far more important anyway.

Here's the deal - a filibuster is a "legitimate loophole" - it's perfectly legal and there are even Senate rules that pertain to such speaking on the floor indefinitely. The Lt. Gov (Dewhurst - he presides over the upper house, the Senate) and GOP majority in the Senate bent and ignored many rules during the process.

First of all, this was a called session. Called sessions are 30 days long (max) and are intended for bringing up emergency legislation (example: disaster relief funding) or for bills like the budget, which died for usually technical reasons or delays. The Governor, Rick Perry called the bill up after it failed in the regular session. The abortion bills failed after 140 days. That's the first arguably iffy thing he did.

Second, he called the abortion bill two weeks after he started the called session, giving it only 14 days to pass. During that process, committee hearings were cut short, closed door meetings occurred and overall both sides could not fairly discuss the matter (obviously though, the GOP majority could speed up the process to a degree). Also, both in the Regular and Called sessions the GOP swapped bipartisan bills on the calender - transportation funding and a judicial reform bill specifically - after the abortion bill so they could blame the Dems for killing those bills by filibustering.

Thirdly, the GOP did not flat out say these were anti-abortion bills, but instead were about regulation only. This was incredibly frustrating - they weren't sincere to their pro-life sentiments and supporters nor honest with those who are pro-choice, and more importantly, those for more broad medical regulation and oversight. To have the same legislators who said we had to cut budgets across the board for healthcare spending, oppose federal mandates and regulations, and de-fund family planning (which strives to prevent abortions) in the last few sessions say to then say they wanted to pass a regulation was a farce. The Dems literally highlighted this for hours and hours to empty ears during debate.

Fourthly, the day of the filibuster. 13 hours were left until midnight, upon which the called session ends Sine Die and legislative bills can't progress. I won't go one-by-one, but about halfway through the rules and decorum fell apart. The gallery crowd was actually well-behaved at this point too - it wasn't until the blatantly poor and improper procedure was conducted that they started yelling and cheering. I have seen the Texas House of Representatives do this all the time for years, and sadly few outside of the politically active community ever comment on it (examples - loophole bills, strategic moves within committee and calender lists, point of orders, lawmakers voting for multiple peers, lawmakers locking doors to try to break quorum [required # of legislators on floor] and similar stunts).

It was at that point that things really fell apart. I know and saw what actually occurred after at and after midnight and then had to pretend I didn't. Parliamentary rules were thrown out the window. They had "3 strikes" in the rules for Sen. Davis and of those only one strike was a warranted one. All of the staff responsible for taking record were literally waiting for the Senate to tell them what to do officially. I went home at 3:30 in the morning worried my peers, who did everything properly, would be hung out to dry for the mistakes of the legislators. So far they haven't and probably won't, but the feeling was terrible. I had always respected the Senate - they more often than not act formally and civilly, so seeing this was shattering. It was all a sham motivated by party politics and pressure. I know that some of the Republican Senators were embarrassed, but they can never state that publicly in office. I even told my mom about all of it, and she is very pro-life, and she too found it to be disturbing how the Senate mangled the legislative process.

The one amazing thing was how many people were there. The entire building was completely full - thousands and thousands of protesters. No one has ever seen anything like it at the Texas Capitol, even legislative staff who have worked there for 40+ years. I hope, hope this will actually mark a point where the fiercely apathetic public actually pays attention. Perry and his cronies get away with blatant arrogance all the time - I can tell you now they are scrambling a bit.

Anyway, if you actually read that, thanks. Here's the short version: shit was cray.

Yeah I love how Perry decided to go on tv and basically call her a bastard, a terrible single mother, and he would pray for her. Jesus the balls on that guy.

Epic post JTX.

cool post joshuatx, many thanks!

yes, awesome post, joshua. I think we've seen the future of political activism with people coordinating on the interwebs to show up and put a spotlight on the shady political hi-jinks.

on the voting rights act decision, I was surprised, although I guess I shouldn't have been, at how quickly some of these states (i.e. texas) are going ahead with reinstating measures that have already been deemed discriminatory by the justice department. they are wasting no time.

Thanks Joshy-jones, a good read.

Awesome post, Josh (conforming to the name evolution current here).

Can you say something more about the "why"s though?

Why did the gop majority go through all of this when there are so many other more important issues (i'm assuming)? Was this process some tactic to draw attention away from something else? Are there a couple of billionaire gop financiers who decided they wanted this particular piece of legislation to pass? What made this issue more urgent on the gop agenda than all the other issues?

I don't understand why this age-old issue got to the forefront of all the issues, most of which are probably more urgent.

  On 6/29/2013 at 9:00 AM, goDel said:

Awesome post, Josh (conforming to the name evolution current here).

 

Can you say something more about the "why"s though?

 

Why did the gop majority go through all of this when there are so many other more important issues (i'm assuming)? Was this process some tactic to draw attention away from something else? Are there a couple of billionaire gop financiers who decided they wanted this particular piece of legislation to pass? What made this issue more urgent on the gop agenda than all the other issues?

 

I don't understand why this age-old issue got to the forefront of all the issues, most of which are probably more urgent.

This was actually going to be a fairly productive and low-key session, at least in the context of Texas politics and policy.

- The budget is the sole legislation they have to pass constitutionally. Last session in 2011 there were massive cuts ($5.4 billion) mostly to public education, that the GOP insisted on doing to avoid debt, which is misleading b/c Texas has A. the rainy day fund - a perpetually growing savings account for the State of $12+ billion that they had used in the past. B. It was revealed that the Comptroller estimated wrongly, by this session they actually had $3.7 more in revenue than expected, something the Dems argued would be the case in 2011. Because of that Davis filibustered the budget last year to prove a point, and they called a special session to quickly pass it again a week or so later. Many Dems and the one sincerely Tea Party Republican, David Simpson, voted against it. In 2013, the budget was far less severe and had far more transparency (still a mess though) and it was passed almost unanimously.

- This session had no emergency legislation - that's legislation that is given less rules on passage so they can be debated and passed faster. Perry used it in 2011 for these mostly socially conservative bills:

• Voter ID laws (which were the big 2009 controversy) were passed (recently upheld by SCOTUS btw, they had been suspended for over a year) as well as a
• Sonogram bill - making women view a sonogram of the fetus they will abort - this was the one that the Senate said wasn't germane to SB 5 and made the gallery explode with boos during the filibuster.
• "Sanctuary City" bill (Texas doesn't really have any, it was more for show) - this one failed
• Eminent domain bill - this one is arguable in effect - especially considering Perry and GOP support for the XL pipeline now.
• Some official resolution expressing the need for the Federal Government to make a balanced budget.

This was done to appease his presidential bid rhetoric and to appease the wave of "Tea Party" legislators. With few exceptions (David Simpson specifically, he's more akin to a Ron Paul-esque quasi-libertarian) the Tea Party Caucus is a social conservative wing of the GOP consisting ironically of many incumbent legislators who've been there for years and years.

So 2013 didn't have any of this, there was more money and no major election coming up. That's why the tone has been so different. The main exception was gun legislation, ironically after a wave of shootings recently. The abortion bill failed because it wasn't considered a priority. The Texas House has a very moderate (i.e. sane) Republican Speaker, Rep. Straus, and he's been very focused on passing important bills first. He's been a target of the Tea Party, who have tried to elect a new Speaker but failed. Some of their supporters even cited his Jewish faith as a reason he shouldn't be in office.

So session ends on May 27th. 40 minutes later the First Called Session is declared. Everyone knows a Called Session is needed to pass new Redistrict Maps, which has been held up in Courts and is the topic Gmanyo posted to begin with. (segue-way achieved). Greg Abbot, the Attorney General of Texas and likely next GOP gubernatorial candidate, wants to do those only. Dewhurst, the Lt Governor who lost a bid to the U.S. Senate to the more conservative Ted Cruz, publicly calls for the abortion and immigration bills to be brought up in session. Perry is absolutely mute. People expect it to take a week to pass, even though it's controversial it's basically a behind doors issue.

Well, then June 10th rolls around and Perry adds a (much needed) Transportation Funding bill that was popular but failed to pass because of delays. It would take rainy day fund money and improve roads and infrastructure. This and the other called session bills (except redistricting which passed) were killed with the filibuster on purpose - the GOP made it so they came after the filibuster.

Then June 11th arrives. Perry adds a Judicial reform bill (again a bipartisan bill) and the Abortion bills. This is two weeks after the Called. I know it's because after two weeks of deciding if it'd be a good political move, he was advised to do so.

So now the 2nd Called Session begins July 1st. Perry declared this a day after the filibuster and a day before he spoke at a pro-life conference in Dallas. Oh, also he was in New York during most of the Called Session. He's rarely at the capitol. I've seen him on the Senate Floor a total of 4 times ever in 5 years (and 2 of those were annual speeches). Pics of him on the House or Senate floor are very misleading.

Why not immediately or why not much later is again completely decided by political strategy. July 4th week is a huge fundraising week but if they are in session, neither Davis nor any other Dem (nor any Republican too) can accept donations, and this is the most buzz she's had ever. There's a good chance they take that week off and not work until July 8th. I don't know. I do know that far more people are paying attention to the legislature than ever. Because of that Dewhurst wrecked his career. That's actually sad for me because he was a pretty moderate and fair Lt. Governor up until this session, when he lost to Cruz in his failed U.S. Senate bid. But he dug his own hole and deserves the wrath (Perry does too but avoids all consequences). He tried to emulate the far-right GOP and it backfired.

Everyone in the GOP is scrambling. They know they can't simply rush through the bills as they have session after session (in formal meetings. i.e. non-public hearings, will probably now be impossible). Or they might if they're arrogant enough - it's worked in the past. It's really all up in the air more than ever. As much as I want to just be done for selfish work reasons, I have to say the pressure suddenly on them is encouraging to watch.

Holy shit. Awesome post!

Will have to take a seat for this one.

  On 6/29/2013 at 6:53 PM, goDel said:

Holy shit. Awesome post!

 

Will have to take a seat for this one.

The kicker is I could of gone into even more details. This is why I hate politics. I want session to end so I can scan and digitize archived documents and browse watmm in peace.

  On 6/29/2013 at 7:01 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 6/29/2013 at 6:53 PM, goDel said:

Holy shit. Awesome post!

 

Will have to take a seat for this one.

 

The kicker is I could of gone into even more details. This is why I hate politics. I want session to end so I can scan and digitize archived documents and browse watmm in peace.

 

even so, your posts were fantastic tx. gives everyone a very specific insight into the rigamarole of Texas politics. I had always heard rumors of Perry and his cronies being some of the most notoriously crooked in the nation, but never found any very specific reasons. This is pretty nasty bending of the rules.

Perry is crooked as fuck, there is an interesting investigation Greg Palast did into his presidential run. He found some connections behind his campaign funding. The theory he puts forward is that the people behind funding Perry knew he wasn't going to win, but essentially did it to 'buy him' for that when he returned to being governor in Texas he would be more inclined to do their bidding. Specifically these same big funders promote turning a plot of land in Texas that sits above a giant aquifer, into the biggest nuclear waste dump in the United States. Apparently the decision to allow such a dump would rest on Perry himself.

i mean this is coming from the same guy who's family ranch is called 'nigger head ranch' just fyi

  On 6/29/2013 at 10:47 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

Perry is crooked as fuck, there is an interesting investigation Greg Palast did into his presidential run. He found some connections behind his campaign funding. The theory he puts forward is that the people behind funding Perry knew he wasn't going to win, but essentially did it to 'buy him' for that when he returned to being governor in Texas he would be more inclined to do their bidding. Specifically these same big funders promote turning a plot of land in Texas that sits above a giant aquifer, into the biggest nuclear waste dump in the United States. Apparently the decision to allow such a dump would rest on Perry himself.

That wouldn't surprise me at all. There's a lot of corruption and cronyism in the state agencies in both election funding and appointments. It isn't just Perry either, Texas has been ripe with "good ole boy" politics for decades. Perry was overshadowed by Craddick's infamous tenure as Speaker in the House. It doesn't mention it in the wiki article, but Craddick even manage to hire and fire people with the non-partisan Texas Legislative Council.

  On 6/29/2013 at 10:47 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

i mean this is coming from the same guy who's family ranch is called 'nigger head ranch' just fyi

Not to defend him in anyway, but apparently that was a fairly common place name

  On 7/1/2013 at 7:21 PM, joshuatx said:

Not to defend him in anyway, but apparently that was a fairly common place name

 

I learned something today.

indeed. niggerhead is a grass:

right on Joshua, thanks for your take on what is happening in the centrifuge of our state.

the far right's agendas are in line with what group of people?

Most people I know would not stand for such political manipulation if it were common knowledge; conservative, independent or liberal; which it should be but the mass media will never cover this side of the story. Thanks to Robbie and Abby (media roots, breaking the set) for bringing such evil dealings to light.

I guess that was a rhetorical question because I know who wants these agendas fulfilled, brainwashed conservative power hungry wealthy self-righteous sociopaths.

Reason shall prevail.

  On 7/1/2013 at 8:26 PM, goDel said:

indeed. niggerhead is a grass:

yes. as if this was any justification for the name at all.

can we fuck off pretending this is some detached scientific delineation of naming for a fucking second here? if some shrubbery in the Western Sahara was named "Kikebush", we would be fine with it? If Perry had rejected the farm's name outright, it would be a different story. Don't pretend that it's not. The man has "Niggerhead Ranch". It wasn't changed. I feel like all adults know what the term "Nigger" entails.

He should change it Gogurt ranch.

yes. yes rename it that