The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You
Thank God that the eyes of Texas were upon the Senate chambers last night.
I need to be honest and tell you that it’s 9:30 am and I just rolled my sweet patootie outta bed. I’m sitting here in my jammies with coffee – no breakfast yet because I ate cereal at 4:00 this morning and then went to bed.
Here’s the bottom line. The vote was after the midnight deadline and does not count. The filibuster won. And there’s a great story of intrigue behind it, as there always is in Texas politics.
Now, there are several things I want to explain to you people from foreign states.
First, the good stuff — I do not want to take anything away from Wendy Davis. She is amazing and should be the next Governor of Texas. Facebook agrees. But, Senator Leticia Van de Putte’s call to action for Texas women broke the camel’s back. Senator Royce West and Senator Kirk Watson did an amazing parliamentary job to keep the clock rolling.
Most amazing was the people’s filibuster. The crowd filling the gallery, the hallways, and the rotunda of the Texas Capitol was breathtaking and I’ve never seen anything like it. The last 15 minutes of the filibuster was done by the gallery, risking jail and a couple of unruly DPS officers. The roar was amazing.
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Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, who lost the senate primary to Ted Cruz and has been determined ever since to get to the right of Cruz, made the largest big ugly butt of himself last night and probably needs to go both to hell and jail.
David Dewhurst
Blaming the “unruly mob” (which is his description of Texas women), Dewhurst first said the vote on SB5 was taken at 11:59 pm. However, the computerize time stamp said 12:02 am. How do you resolve that? Well, Darlin’, you simply change the time stamp to say what you want it to say. In other words, you commit the felony offense of tampering with a government document. That is what Dewhurst did.
Now conveniently, Governor Rick Perry vetoed funding for the public integrity unit of the Travis County DA’s office earlier this month, so Dewhurst knew full well that he couldn’t be prosecuted for this felony. It’s like they made bank robbery legal and expected Republicans not to rob banks because it’s the morally wrong thing to do. Super DeLux Brand Christians have to have rules in order to behave because they have no damn morals.
So, when photographic evidence was produce that Dewhurst has no morals, a quick back room private caucus was held of the Texas senate. I have no way of knowing, of course, what happened in that back room but I’ll bet Senator Dan Patrick and David Dewhurst were wishing they had worn Depends.
If Governor Perry does, indeed, call a special session to pass SB5, all hell will break loose. Click the little one to see the big one.
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I’ve got a deadline over at Crooks and Liars today about the Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott demanding voter ID two hours after the Supreme Court rulings yesterday so I’m outta here to get that done.
But, you know what, the only voter fraud I’ve seen in Texas was in the Texas senate last night and Gregg Abbott was nowhere to be found.
I’ll see ya this afternoon to talk about the great news from the Supremes today.
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Meanwhile, thank you people from foreign states for also being the Eyes of Texas.
Thank YOU Susan, for what you are doing for the rest of us…Democracy is not dead, just getting beat up and battered by those forces you are battling…Keep it up, please…This is why, as an Old White Male, I have, and will always support women who are like Mrs. Davis, and you…We, in Colorado, are seeing an uptick in women candidates and legislators…It is so refreshing to listen to common sense, and honesty coming from a Politician…
1Well done, women of Texas! As for the clock-fixer, a pox upon you.
2What a slimeball. And to think he thought he could get away with it. I was watching from the wilds of Wyoming and saw the screengrab of the vote time-stamped after midnight. Me, in my little ol’ home in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming…I’m just a nobody and I saw it. What in the world was he thinking? He could outwit the tens of thousands of others watching???
Some quote about hubris is on the edges of my brain…
And Wendy Davis and all the others helping her are simply awesome!!!
On the way to turning Texas a lovely shade of blue I’d say!!!
Wish I was still down there…sort of…College Station was just a bit too to-the-right-of-right for me. 🙂
3This is my favorite picture from the whole thing http://www.bigstory.ap.org/photo/wendy-davis-17
It will make a great campaign poster for Wendy Davis for Governor!
The voter ID stinks–I’ll be send gas money to help get people to the polls, money to get ID’s however we can get Texas blue–women are 51 percent of the population–time’s come to roar
4Texas wore me out last night, I was so tuckered that it took 3 cups of coffee to figure out that thanks to the people of Texas (men and woman), the miracle of technology (love that time stamp), and the hundreds of thousands of online viewers justice was served in Texas. It wasn’t just the eyes (or is that Ayes?), of Texas that were upon Dewey and Patrick, it was the world.
This is the first nail in the coffin for these folks political chicanery, go get em Texas Dems! Might I respectfully suggest that in Davis, Van De Putte, West, Watson and Zaffriini that Texas clearly has a solid slate of candidates for State and National Offices.
5Great post … thank you.
6Thank you Wendy Davis from women everywhere! You are a goddess among women! And thank you JJ (another goddess)!
7Find the person who changed the time. If they can’t be charged with tampering with a bill, then they should be identified and they should be given the opportunity to tell Texans who told them to change the time and why.
If they took it upon themselves to do this, then they should be fired. They cannot be trusted.
Congratulations to Wendy Davis, the Democrats and all the women and men who stood up to the American Taliban, AKA as republicans.
8It takes a special kind a woman with a special kind of toughness to live in Texas, so the “unruly mob” description might not be all that far off the mark, really.
I mean, don’t they know what ya get when you rile up a Texas female? They’re probably just lucky they didn’t *really* piss ’em off (sorry, Momma)
9Elise Von Holten
The State Party is looking at ways of dealing with the voter id law. This law will be fought. Hopefully, the voters will realized that the GOP is the party of racists who are trying to steal the votes from the poor, the elderly and minorities.
10One more thought after reading TPM, which noted:
Republican Sen. Donna Campbell called the third point of order because of Davis’ remarks about a previous law concerning sonograms. Under the rules, lawmakers can vote to end a filibuster after three sustained points of order.
After much back and forth, the GOP voted to end the filibuster minutes before midnight, sparking the raucous response from protesters. As the demonstrators thundered, Campbell urged Senate security to “Get them out! Time is running out. I want them out of here!”
How’s about getting Senator Campbell out of the Senate?!
11Express the love ….
http://www.wendydavisforsenate.com/page.cfm?pageid=84
12Still can’t believe it happened! I’ve lived in Texas for 45 years and have never seen anything like it. Congrats and thanks to all involved. I’m just waiting for DumpRick to try to ruin it by calling another special session. Hope he is smart enough to crawl away and lick his wounds.
13More than the eyes of Texas were watching last night’s doings in the Texas senate. At least 100,000 were estimated to be watching live feed via several online sites.
My neighborhood lost power right at the height of the parliamentary back-and-forth, so it was a couple of hours later, not long after midnight Texas time that I found out the good news.
Keep up the activism, folks. This may spread to other states. Other folks may find the courage to be the next Wendy Davis, Royce West, Judith Zaffirini, Kirk Watson. We can hope.
14America is proud of you all today!
15get registered to vote! sign up ten more people by July 4th.
16send money to Battleground Texas, Emily’s list, your local Democrats and other places it will help.
Should we try to fund the public integrity unit in Travis County?
Speaking of unruly DPS officers, check out this picture of one of them shoving a lady of a certain age when clearing the galleries last night: http://www.liberallylean.com/2013/06/state-troopers-in-action-last-night.html. The officer should be identified and publicly reprimanded. That is not the way I was taught to treat a lady.
17I’m almost tempted to move back so I can vote for Wendy. It sounds like the same scenario that put Ann Richards in the governor’s mansion – a reasonable, energetic, likeable woman with a truly hateful opponent. It happened once. It can happen again.
18I commented on Wendy Davis’ FB page this morning she had about 50,000 likes checked in this afternoon she is up to about 83,000
19For those of you not familiar with Royce West, if you put him in a room with James Earl Jones, it would be difficult to determine which should be the voice of God in the next Bible movie.
20I am one of those people with a lot of opinions but for years have found reasons not to get involved. I’m fired up now! If there is another special session, I will take off work and I will be there. I will be down at my local Dem office to volunteer to register votes, I will find a way to turn Texas blue.
21JJ, keep posting on volunteer opportunities.
And, Sandy, Royce is almost as wise as God, too. He’s a true Texas hero.
22More Politics
Non-stop
Gov. Rick Perry has the power to call another special session—meaning Davis would need to filibuster an anti-abortion bill for weeks.
—By Dana Liebelson
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/texas-republicans-wendy-davis-abortion-filibuster
23I’m with you, JJ, on the others who made it possible for Wendy Davis to do what she did and then carry on to run out the clock. And Leticia Van de Putte’s comment was absolutely perfect in every way. There was more than one hero there last night and it gives me chills just to think about it. I wish so much I could have been there. It’s one of those moments that much later we will say “I know exactly where I was when the historic filibuster happened!”
24I loved the sound of the shouting! Marvelous!!
The current State budget is in effect until the end of Aug. The vetoed funding would be for the next Biennium which starts in Sep 1. I know of one complaint already sent to the PIU. They have time to do some damage. I am hoping they get on the ball.
25Were David Dewhurst and Barney Fife separated at birth?
26Leticia is my State Senator and my friend. Keep in mind her father died Friday afternoon and she lost a baby grandson a month & a half ago.
27I finally got to see the recording of the live action, Leticia Van de Putte was truly a hero and I could just see the look in her eyes that said it all, I read it like this “So your actions made me leave my father’s funeral to come here and deal with the mess you created and you WILL listen to me, and you WILL answer me!” Got it? Thank you Leticia and all the Texas senators and citizens that made this night possible. You are all so brave and I am humbled.
28Dewhurst, the gracious host of the Texas Senate, never acknowledged Leticia saying she’d just come from her father’s funeral. No, “I’m sorry and now I’ll just try to screw you.” No, just – “I’ll try to screw you.”
I can’t think of an animal I dislike enough to compare him to.
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