A huge CME on Wednesday set off an eletromagnetic frenzy. Wouldn’t it just be wonderful to see the Aurora Borialis just once? This one was taken in the past day or so, and looks like green smoke is rising up out of the snow.
It looks like winter passed us by. Is anyone interested in a Moonhowlings Meet Up at Mama Mia’s in the next couple of weeks? We can ask Steve to scout it out again. Maybe we can get some folks out we still haven’t met and of course we can extend an invitation to Cargo. Maybe we can even get another red velvet cake out of Chris.
Another CME is incoming. The picture on the right was taken in Iceland.
Tonight there was a candle light vigil complete with song at the Governor’s Mansion. The demonstrators held candles, sang, had copies of petitions signed by thousands of women to be delivered to Gov. McDonald. Their song must have fallen on deaf ears as much as their protests of the last month did.
A handful of uniformed Capitol police officers are present. There is no sign of officers in riot gear, as in Saturday’s protest in which 30 demonstrators were arrested after they refused to leave the Capitol’s steps.
Organizers of this evening’s vigil say they did not need a permit because they are not on Capitol grounds, but on the street behind the mansion.
McDonnell is not in town this evening. He is attending a fundraiser in Northern Virginia for Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican.
So McDonnell signs an bill into law that requires an unnecessary medical procedure and then leaves town? Why is he meeting in Northern Virginia with Mike Pence? Is McDonnell trying to find some more repressive laws to pass onto Virginia women? Mike Pence is best known for his war of misinformation on Planned Parenthood.
Does that mean that Gov. McDonnell is now turning pro-abortion? Ewwww. Bob. I assume anyone against contraception is in favor of abortion. It’s so much better to prevent unwanted pregnancy in the first place.
After delaying a decision on the contentious bill for eight days straight, the Senate voted 23 to 17 to send it back to committee, effectively killing it for the year.
Three Republicans joined all 20 Democrats in voting to recommit the bill, which has been vigorously opposed by the Virginia Education Association.
The move was a political defeat for McDonnell, who had made overhauling teacher contracts a key part of his education agenda.
“This bill does nothing but kick teachers in the teeth,” said Sen. Philip Puckett (D-Russell), a former teacher and principal.
“Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement,” said the Cato Institute in its 2006 report, Overkill, “along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units … for routine police work.” Virginians have witnessed the phenomenon in action recently in their state capital — particularly last Saturday, when officers of the State Police dressed in combat gear squared off against protesters who were peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights.
A number of those protesters later were arrested for refusing to clear the steps of the Capitol. The protesters had a permit to protest at the Bell Tower, but not the Capitol steps. Although the courts have upheld restrictions on the time, place and manner of public demonstrations, those restrictions ought to be as lax as possible. Giving demonstrators broad latitude is more in keeping with the First Amendment than rigid enforcement of arbitrary constraints.
That said, the protesters’ refusal to obey a lawful order was unwise. They already had made their point, and did not advance their arguments by provoking a confrontation that distracts from their message. The politically motivated debate over the arrests that has followed — complete with utterly ridiculous comparisons to the era of segregation and Massive Resistance — has now overshadowed the issue to which the protesters were trying to bring attention.
Gov. Bob McDonnell on Wednesday signed legislation mandating that a woman undergo an ultrasound before an abortion, acting on the bill amid a scorching debate that has thrust Virginia into the national spotlight and sparked protests at the state Capitol.
The approval came despite persistent pressure from women’s rights demonstrators to spike the legislation, which in its original form could have required some women to undergo an ultrasound with a vaginal probe.
Once the details of the procedure were discussed publicly, McDonnell urged amendments that still would require an abdominal ultrasound but allow a woman to reject the more invasive procedure.
Predictably, he signed. Predictably, the women of Virginia will make sure this violation of women’s rights sticks to him like stench. Hopefully McDonnell wants to carry this invasion into his quest for higher national office.
What has not been explained is how an external ultra sound is going to determine gestational age. At any rate, McDonnell has ignored the women of Virginia.
From Planned Parenthood:
Gov. McDonnell just signed into law HB 462, mandating that women seeking abortion care in Virginia undergo and pay for an ultrasound and make two-trips to the health center. This law is nothing but an attempt to shame and place barriers for women seeking legal abortion care in Virginia.
Make no mistake about it. This new law is a ruse to make abortion more inaccessible and more expensive. McDonnell is done. Fork him.
