Quote:
Originally Posted by SeijiSensei
I'm sure Putin wants Snowden to be able to speak warmly about his Russian hosts. The bigger question concerns what happened to whatever documents he was carrying with him.
Is Wendy Davis Currently the Most Powerful Woman in Texas?
The Texas state legislature, where Republicans hold large majorities in both Houses, has been meeting in special session and are now consdering a highly-restrictive anti-abortion bill that would close the vast majority of clinics in the state offering abortions. That session comes to an end at midnight tonight.
The attempt to consider the measure in the lower House committee was blocked by a "citizen filibuster" late last week when hundreds of people showed up to speak for the three minutes they were granted under the rules. This event continued on into the wee hours of the morning at which point the House committee holding the hearing recessed. They came back on Sunday morning to face an even larger horde of opponents, but after some parliamentary manuevering the Republican leadership managed to get the bill voted out of committee. It was taken up by entire House early yesterday morning and passed around 10:45 or so whereupon it was sent on the Senate.
However the rules require a 24-hour waiting period before the bill could be brought up before the Senate. Democratic representative Wendy Davis vowed to filibuster the bill by herself. She started speaking at 11:34 am and has about four hours left. Unlike those hokey filibusters in the US Senate, Ms. Davis must remain on her feet and speak continuously for the entire time and cannot eat or drink. When asked if she had been catheterized, she responded that she had "taken care of it; that's all you need to know." |
And sadly, the lt. governor decided to abrogate the protocol and rules and simply halted the filibuster. So much for rule-of-law in Texas and now it will cost the state millions in court cases as various groups file suit against the constitutionality of the law.