Texas Rep. Wendy Davis is speaking against SB5 right now

Rep. Davis is filibustering SB5, the super anti-woman, anti-choice bill that one of the sponsors equated rape kits with abortion. Because I hate my life.

Rep. Davis called out her colleagues for trying to go around their two-third majority rule and push this bill through. That is why she is doing this. Below is Rep. Davis speaking, as you can see none of her colleagues are listening to her, but she began by saying she will speak for the next 12 hours and 40 minutes. *don't read the comments*



This is important because these bills are moving across the Midwest. Ohio has one tied to the budget, which as you may remember means it can't be repealed by a ballot measure. I have nothing but respect for the women standing up to these tyrants. Hopefully, Rep. Davis will be successful.

Ohio Issue 2

Oh, it warms my heart to see people in Ohio organizing against Issue 2.

On Friday, Governor Kasich attempted to host a meeting with union leaders to compromise on Issue 2/Senate Bill 5. The union leaders were to be represented by We are Ohio, but they refused to meet with Kasich. We are Ohio said they would not meet with Kasich, but apparently, Kasich didn't believe them.

The press waited for 30 minutes before they decided to head back to the office. There are some amazing pictures out there of the table with the name tags and no one sitting. [Image above:Kasich sadness taken from EntertainmentCleveland.com]. Kasich said he was disappointed that no union representatives were willing to meet with him, because he was willing to negotiate.

We are Ohio said:

"Today workers representing We Are Ohio and our 1.3 million supporters continued their call on Governor Kasich, Senate President Niehaus and Speaker Batchelder to repeal all of Senate Bill 5, the unfair and unsafe bill that hurts us all. We Are Ohio called on these leaders to first repeal all of Senate Bill 5 to ensure a fresh start to the process."

Building a Better Ohio (the anti-workers' group) of course came out with this gem:

"Despite the rhetoric, Ohio's government union bosses have consistently demonstrated their unwillingness to be part of a meaningful solution. Their political allies failed to offer a single amendment to the bill. They walked away from efforts to open a dialogue earlier this summer. Now, they've arrogantly refused, once again, to even have a conversation about the possibility of resolving this debate outside of a bitter, costly ballot fight."

If Issue 2 is defeated this November then it completely overturns Senate Bill 5 and protect workers' rights. At this point we don't know if Kasich will try to have another meeting with union representatives, but We are Ohio are standing firm. They are taking it to the polls.

Linkage:

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/political/ohio-union-reps-are-a-no-show-for-meeting-with-gov.-kasich

http://weareohio.com/

http://betterohio.org/ (on the front page, there is a flash player show with a white teach teaching an interracial class, with a banner saying "How Issue 2 is keeping the best teachers." I'm going to vomit.)

SB 5 Referendum On for November

According to the Toledo Blade on Friday, the Ohio Senate Bill 5 referendum will be on the ballot in November. On Friday, the signature count is 714,137; that is three times more than required to get the referendum on the ballot, 231,149.

The organizers received a large number of signatures rapidly in Lucas and Wood counties. The article implies that the signature count isn't in for Cuyahoga and Franklin counties yet...yeah wrap your mind around that number without Cuyahoga County.

Republican State Senators expected the response and have planned accordingly. They have a politically action committee and a non-profit, Building a Better Ohio, but the campaign is expected to get underway around Labor Day (irony). The Republicans are claiming a strong grassroots movement...I don't think they know what grassroots means.

My favorite quote from Sen Shannon Jones (R., Springboro):

“We can either continue to do things the way we’ve been doing the way [them], or we can do things better so that we don’t return to more increased taxes or job losses and return to prosperity in this state,’’

Yep, continue doing them the current way or destroy unions, which and I don't know if you know this, the word union means destroyer of America also they eat babies. Look it up. Thank god these people are saving us from teachers, commie bastards.

Additionally, a brief summary Ohio SB 5 again:

• Prohibits public employees from striking
• Limits negotiations
• Prohibits local government from paying any portion of an employee's share of his pension benefits
• Requires employees pay at least 15% of their health care premiums
• Prohibits the automatic deduction of "fair share" fees from public workers who refuse to join a union.