Texas Politics

Well I knew it. Rick Perry called for another special session, and there's a protest scheduled for Monday. It's going to be harder this time to defeat the bill, since they have 30 days now. Sigh.

In other news, I'm glad my Representative Marc Veasey is suing to try to stop the new Voter ID law. I don't know if he'll succeed, but at least we're not just going to sit still and do nothing. Congress needs to act on getting a new preclearance formula done, but who knows how long that will take? July 4th is coming up and I just hope there will be some reason to celebrate instead of feeling depressed again over how far we have to go.

Well, at least marriage equality is reinstated in California. Congrats to all the happy couples!

Cheers, Wendy!

Hooray for Wendy, and all the protesters who helped! Last night, before I went to bed, I was worried because I wasn't sure if the Senate vote was legal or not, but I'm happy this morning to find out that it was after midnight. The anti-abortion bill is dead for now. Of course the war is not over. We'll have to see if Rick Perry calls another special session; if he does we'll have to protest and filibuster again.

In other news the Supreme Court struck down DOMA at long last. So hooray for all married couples that can now receive federal benefits like they deserve. I'm still pissed at the court about the Voting Rights Act, but we'll deal with that later.

Voting Rights Act

Aw, crap! The Supreme Court struck down the "preclearance" formula of the Voting Rights Act. I think this means that states like Texas can make any voting rights laws they want to, and no federal court can stop them until after they're passed. The Texas GOP is sure to try enacting or passing more voting ID laws, which won't have to go through preclearance. With that and the redistricting mess since the last census, we'll be fucked come next election. Thanks a lot, Justices! If anybody wants Texas to turn blue, then you've gotta fucking help, instead of whining that Texas should secede.

Plus, in the meantime we're relying on a filibuster to stop the new anti-abortion bill. I can't take off work to go to Austin, but good luck, Wendy!

Ficblock

Because there's very few new TV shows on during the summer (other than reality and cable shows), I've been obsessively watching season 4 of Arrested Development over and over. It's great how the season builds and how you notice new things on rewatch, such as the Mexican shop having a warning sign for a "roofie circle" on it.

I don't have time enough to restart any of my old unfinished AD fanfics now, though I did think about writing a short Michael & Gob scene set in 2009. Unfortunately when I tried to start that, I discovered that I can't figure out this damn timeline.

More Victorian authors

I decided not to try another Anna Katherine Green book yet, and moved onto other Victorian mystery authors, hoping for more variety. Robert Barr's "The Triumphs of Eugene Valmont" is a collection of short stories about a French detective who is disgraced and fired, then becomes a private detective in London. Valmont is as pompous as Hercule Poirot, and forever calling other people idiots. I also don't know if Barr the author agrees with Valmont the character that the English justice system is terrible for presuming a person innocent until proved guilty. Valmont thinks it's stupid, and he constructs a special dungeon in his own house where he can confine prisoners and presumably torture or starve information out of them. Kind of scary, though in the stories we only see him use it specifically on a drug-addicted friend who needs to be saved. Valmont does allude to becoming successful and rich as a private detective, because he did what English police wouldn't do, and that to me suggests use of the dungeon. There were also a couple of Sherlock Holmes parodies in the book, more satirical than amusing.