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TexasTowelie

(112,435 posts)
Tue Jul 2, 2013, 06:58 PM Jul 2013

Abortion hearing underway, 1,900 signed up (in Texas House)

Source: Austin American-Statesman

More than 1,600 people have signed up to testify on a sweeping abortion bill before the House State Affairs Committee, and another 300 signed within a half-hour of the hearing’s start shortly after 3:30 p.m.

The line into the small hearing room began forming before 9 a.m., and by 3 p.m. several hundred people packed the hallway, hoping for a spot in the 100-seat hearing room. Most were turned away, finding spots in one of nine hearing rooms that were opened for overflow crowds in the Capitol Extension.

Emergency crews were called to the room when a woman in line fainted, prompting frantic calls for people in line to back up and give her some air. Paramedics took her away in a rolling gurney.

Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, asked why the hearing was being held in such a small room.

Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/abortion-hearing-underway-1900-signed-up/nYcHH/

11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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niyad

(113,573 posts)
4. why are they holding the hearing in such a small room? because they want to make it
Tue Jul 2, 2013, 07:32 PM
Jul 2013

impossible for those opposed to the bill to speak.

I just read the blog cited in this post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023152810--

didn't even have to, actually, to know that they were playing fast and loose, and that the small room was ONLY for the pro-forced birthers. apparently, most of the texas lege is plain scum.

freshwest

(53,661 posts)
7. Niyah, this is typical technique of ALEC fast tracking.
Wed Jul 3, 2013, 01:21 AM
Jul 2013

BTW, the link is not coming up for me. Let me know if it is still working for you.


niyad

(113,573 posts)
10. didn't work for me, either, but went back and found it.
Wed Jul 3, 2013, 10:17 AM
Jul 2013

Wow. TX Legislators are pulling some nefarious, undemocratic shit RIGHT NOW! (this is the title, from yesterday, I found it on page 6 or 7 of latest

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023152810



http://juanitajean.com/ (this is the blog that was linked in the op)

freshwest

(53,661 posts)
11. Thanks, yes, I've seen that thread. I mentioned it here in a reply to babylonsister:
Wed Jul 3, 2013, 11:59 AM
Jul 2013
Wow. TX Legislators are pulling some nefarious, undemocratic shit RIGHT NOW!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3152810

From the link on the OP:


http://juanitajean.com/

NEW UPDATE: There are between 500 to 1,000 anti-choice people here in the Capitol wearing blue. They are carrying signs and singing church songs.

For reasons that will soon become clear, the chairman of the committee reserved a room for the hearing that only holds 100 people. That information was apparently given to the blue people before the public got it. They have filled the room.

On top of that, the Governor has reserved every damn meeting room in the Capitol for the entire month. So, we have no where to go.

We are told we will get a room eventually...


I've seen this happen when ALEC bills were being rammed through where I live now. In a blue state. Those who have a stake in the legislation are not given a place to be, and I've even seen the packing the room tactic used in court cases as well as in the legislature.

In one of the many cases resisting an ALEC scheme, monied group picked up homeless people off the streets with promises of a lunch if they would sit in a courtroom. Maybe they were told it was for some cause to help the downtrodden who were about to be made homeless by the very people who picked them up but they could not have known that.

They didn't know what it was about, only that it was part of getting a meal. But it was done to deny the opposing side a place to be and a chance to testify. Just as being done here, one side speaks but by crowd control, the other is not.

The ones who are making the corporatist actions control the playing field and those who oppose, who will be gravely harmed, are kept waiting at the door or sent away. And the most outrageous and demented things have been said and done, even with thousands resisting. Literal grassroots with calling, going door to door, meeting with groups in the subject area, experts with long history of all venues, and they are not listened to.

The only thing that kept the GOP who were pushing the actions, were those old 'weak and spineless' Democrats. And they all were subjected to stuff that made Wendy's time in the capitol look like a Quinceañera.

You cannot underestimate the perfidity and corrupt practices of a Repugnant. It's like entering the Twilight Zone with them. An unusual take on why from another DUer:

Republicans serve The Beast:

From the dawn of mankind they are the regressive element that's been holding back and destroying our civilization. They nourish other-dimensional entities that feed on misery, pain, and chaos.

Republicans are their minions, and hope to share in these entities' power, or be spared the pain.


But The Beast never shares; The Beast never spares.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023153439#post3

 

Mr. David

(535 posts)
5. If anything at all, the Democrats should demand that the bill be heard in full House
Tue Jul 2, 2013, 07:34 PM
Jul 2013

with plenty of seats for the crowd.

And Dewhurst is duct-taped to a seat for the next 30 days gagged and blindfolded.

And no food except liquid nutrition.

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