SB 723 Update 5

We're now into the last month of the 2011 Texas Legislative session, and the clock is ticking toward the end of it on May 30.  We're keeping an eye on an anti bullying bill now on the House floor among with a few others.  

The Legislative Queery blog is an excellent resource to keep with with all things Texas Legislature related from a TBLG perspective, and if you want to get a feel for Texas politics, Burnt Orange Report is one of my fave sites as well.

But let's get to what you trans peeps want to hear about, SB 723.   

Sen Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands) had to make a decision as to whether to put his bill back on the senate intent calendar or let it go onto the general calendar, where as of April 22 it was 74th in line.   The  general calendar is where bills go that are more controversial in nature and don't have 2/3 support of senators to expedite the process.   

Well, there is good news and bad news concerning SB 723.    The good news is that it is NOT on the intent calendar any more, it's on the general calendar.

The bad news is that Sen. Williams has until May 20 to get SB 723 voted out of the Senate, and then it must work its way through the House process by May 25.   HB 3098, the companion bill to SB 723 is still languishing in committee right now as it has been since March 18.   The bad news is that the sponsor of that bill is the chair of the committee, and she can call a meeting at any time.   

Still keeping an eye on it until the clock strikes midnight on May 30.

Joe Lieberman, You Are NOT JFK

I watched with amusement Joe Lieberman's press conference announcing he would not seek reelection in 2012 to the US Senate.   He was going to have a problematic road to reelection to begin with since he's an independent and liberal Dems in Connecticut have been pissed at him since 2002.

They and the rest of us in the country haven't forgotten Ned Lamont beat him in the 2006 Democratic primary and instead of taking his butt whipping and moving on, he filed as an independent.  Republicans sandbagged their own nominee in order to cross over and vote for Lieberman to put him back in the Senate.

And Connecticut Democrats haven't forgotten it or his sellout appearance at the 2008 Republican convention.
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So as I watched his press conference, I was happily watching him make that retirement speech until he tried to take another swipe at the party by spouting the same tired right wing spin line that John F. Kennedy would be a Republican today and he was in the mold of John F. Kennedy..

 But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

Sen. John F. Kennedy  What Is A Liberal Speech  September 14, 1960


To paraphrase the late Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, you are no John F. Kennedy and how dare you even part your lips to say that GOP lie.  


Goodbye and good riddance to Joe Lieberman.  Don't let the door hit you in your behind on the way out.

Sen. Bernie Sanders Breaks It Down

This is Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT a self identified and proud socialist.    'Socialist' is not a pejorative to whack Democrats and liberals with who oppose the conservafool agenda. 

Class is in session, vanilla flavored conservafools .  Sen. Sanders is taking y'all to school about the class war against you your fellow rich white peeps initiated that your bamboozled votes for Republicans on November 2 enabled

And oh yeah Senate Democrats, this what y'all should have been doing since 1981 to fight the Republican noise machine and their agenda.

Senators Franken And Gillibrand Introduce Anti-TBLG Bullying Act

I mentioned that one of the three openly gay members of the House, Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) introduced HR 4530, the Student Non-Discrimination Act of 2010 back in January.

Senators Al Franken (D-MN) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) have introduced the Senate version of the legislation aimed at combating anti-LGBT bullying in public schools.

The bill, known as the Student Non-Discrimination Act, currently has 21 Senate cosponsors and "would establish a comprehensive federal prohibition against discrimination in public schools based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity," according to a press release from Sen. Gillibrand's office. "It would forbid schools from discriminating against LGBT students or ignoring harassing behavior."

Penalties for public schools that fail to address anti-gay bullying could include loss of federal funding and legal recourse for students who have suffered discrimination.

Sen. Franken indicated last month that he would introduce an anti-bullying bill when he criticized current laws during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing.

“There’s something very specific that has been on my mind ... LGBT youth being bullied,” Franken told a panel of education experts in the April hearing. “Right now we have laws that prohibit bullying based on pretty much everything, but not on gender identity and gay and lesbian kids. And the evidence is that gay kids are bullied a lot and that their achievement goes down. There’s a lot of absenteeism and even suicide.”

Sitting Out An Election Is Not An Option

I read the post from Paula Brooks of Lez Get Real urging GLBT people in Massachusetts to sit out today's US Senate special election, between Martha Coakley and Scott Brown and I have a few things to say about that.

Are you fracking crazy? It is never a smart play for a minority group to sit out an election.

I don't care how mad or upset you get with the party hierarchy, or couch your displeasure with 'tough love' rhetoric, you're not 'punishing them' by sitting out the election, you're punishing yourselves.

I have to chuckle and shake my head in sadness at the fact that once again, white fauxgressive GLBT people wallowing in vanilla flavored privilege are falling for the okey-doke from Republifools like Brown and acting against their own economic and political interests because they're 'mad' at President Obama and the Democratic Party.

Yeah, right. You white gays are pissed off because the Prez hasn't done what you wanted him to do in one year on the job and supports civil unions but not marriage.

Hello..we were on the brink of a depression when he took office. Let's also not forget that Obama is still cleaning up the mess from Dubya's toxic waste of a presidency.

And let's get real, you're still hatin' on him because he beat Sen. Hillary Clinton, the HRC endorsed candidate in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.

He's the president that SIGNED hate crimes legislation and made it the law of the land and will sign ENDA when it hits his desk.

It's also time to smell the legislative coffee and deal with the reality that permanently repealing DOMA requires CONGRESSIONAL action, not an executive order. If Congress doesn't pass that DOMA repeal legislation, it can't appear on his desk to sign it.

Frankly, while I'm in favor of marriage equality, I still believe that making it the lead GLBT issue was a colossal mistake. It has slowed the positive forward momentum the GLBT community built up with the previous strategy of passing comprehensive rights laws. It has wasted precious time, resources and treasure on a issue that isn't going to benefit the vast majority of GLBT people, and only serves as a intersectional organizing and fundraising mechanism for the Sacreligious Reich.

You peeps like Paula Brooks who are advocating sitting out today's election got it wrong. If you vote in today's election, you INCREASE your leverage. If your votes are the ones that allow Martha Coakley to finish out the late Ted Kennedy's senate term, it's a little difficult for Senator Coakley to ignore GLBT issues if its shown that GLBT voters were the ones that put her over the top.

My observation that it's never a smart play to sit out an election comes from bitter experience.

Back in 1994 we African descended Texans were pissed about minor disagreements we were having with Gov. Ann Richards administration and the same 'sit out the election to teach them a lesson' call went out.

The problem was that call went out in the same year of the 'Angry White Male midterms'. Our sitting out that 1994 election cycle in the face of an energized GOP leaning electorate paved the way for George W. Bush to be elected governor of Texas, and halted the progressive cleanup of the mess the previous Republican governor left behind.

The only reason we kept anti GLBT and anti civil rights legislation at bay in the 90's was Democratic control of the Texas House, where we killed bad legislation in committee. Us sitting out the 1994 cycle narrowed the Dem advantage in the Texas House to a scant six seats and put the GOP in a position to illegally buy their way into a majority in 2002.

We also lost the $2.5 billion budget surplus that Gov. Richards had painstakingly built up over her term after inheriting a $6 billion budget deficit. In my home county it cost us the seats of every sitting African-American judge as well.

How many times will white gay peeps continue to fail to get the message that voting for anti-GLBT rights Republicans because you're 'mad at Democrats' or sitting out elections is a politically delusional act?

If that wording is harsh, then what would you call letting someone into political office who hates the GLBT community as Scott Brown does and giving them the power to negatively impact it?

Damned sure wouldn't call it 'smart politics'.

If African American and other GLBT peeps of color know that Republicans are not our friends, will fight tooth and nail to see they DON'T get elected, and under any circumstances will not vote for them, why haven't y'all gotten that message?

And that's keeping it real for you vanilla flavored GLBT peeps who agree with Lez Get Real.

Sitting out an election is not an option.

Sen. Al Franken Calls Out Sen. Thune

I love Sen. Al Franken (D-MN). This is what the GOP and the conservative movement was afraid of when they fought his election by the citizens of Minnesota.

Check out this video of Sen. Franken smacking down Repugnican Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and rebutting the lies he just told about the health care bill.

Say Hello To Justice Sotomayor

When the Supreme Court kicks off it's fall term in October, it will be another historic moment for our country.

For the first time in our country's history, the Supreme Court photo will include a Latina justice.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor was just confirmed confirmed by the Senate moments ago on a 68-31 mostly party line vote as our 111th associate justice of the Supreme Court.

Only nine Republicans voted for her such as Mel Martinez of Florida.

This is a great day not only for Latino Americans but all Americans. Congratulations to Justice Sotomayor who will be sworn in Saturday by Chief Justice John Roberts as our third female justice and third* non-white justice.

Clarence Thomas is a BINO-Black in Name Only. Now can we get a sistah on the Court to counteract Clarence Thomas' self-hating bullcrap?

When she finally joins the court this October she'll be the only justice who wa a prosecutor, has trial court experience, and 17 years experience at two levels of the federal court system.

No Joke, It's FINALLY Senator Franken!

Almost eight months and two recounts after the 2008 election, the Minnesota Supreme Court threw out Norm Coleman's last ditch legal Hail Mary to overturn the electoral will of the people.

The Minnesota Supreme Court earlier today ordered that Democrat Al Franken be certified as the winner of the state's long-running Senate race.

Franken won the razor thin race by 318 votes, and he graciously embraced his hard fought victory at a press conference.

It means that Franken will become the junior senator for the state of Minnesota Minnesota. It also means the Dems have the magic 60 votes they need to shut down filibusters.

And not a moment too soon.

With critical votes coming up on health care, energy policy, ENDA and hate crimes, and the upcoming Sotomayor confirmation hearings, Sen. Franken will definitely be welcomed with open arms by his Democratic colleagues.

President Obama said in a statement, "I look forward to working with Senator-Elect Franken to build a new foundation for growth and prosperity by lowering health care costs and investing in the kind of clean energy jobs and industries that will help America lead in the 21st century."

Congratulations Sen. Franken. Today Paul Wellstone and Hubert Humphrey are smiling. May you serve the people of Minnesota and our country ably and well.

60!

Say hello to Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

"Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans."

Specter was greeted by a loud, sustained round of applause by dozens of constituents outside his Washington office shortly after the news broke.

"I don't have to say anything to them," a smiling Specter said. "They've said it to me."

The five term senator announced today that he is switching parties, thus guaranteeing that once sore loser Norm Coleman get the legal smackdown again and Sen Al Franken finally gets to take the senate seat he earned almost 100 days ago on behalf of the people of Minnesota, the Democrats will have the ability to shut down filibusters in the Senate.

First elected in 1980, he was once of the few GOP moderates left in the northeast United States. It's now a conservative, increasing ideological party that has shrunk to basically being strong only in the Deep South. Specter joins the 200,000 Pennsylvania Republican moderates fleeing the increasingly batturd crazy GOP.

President Obama's reaction was the same as many Dems. According to Politico.com the president reached Specter, one of only three Republicans to support his stimulus package, on the phone at 10:32 AM EDT and told him "you have my full support." He added that we are "thrilled to have you."

Specter however sounded a cautionary note that just because he's now a Democrat doesn't mean that he won't be as independent as he was on the GOP side.

“I will not be an automatic 60th vote,” Specter said. “I would illustrate that with my position on employee choice, also known as card check. I think it’s a bad deal and I’m opposed to it. I will not vote to impose cloture. If the Democratic Party asks too much, I will not vote with them."

Welcome to the party Sen. Specter. As long as you're with me 80-90% of the time, I'll forgive the times you vote your conscience and aren't.