Project Orange - Slice of Life

Texas human beings are continuing the hard-fought battle protecting what little bodily autonomy women have there, with Sen. Wendy Davis at the helm. Thousands of supporters are descending upon the Capital for this second special session as called by Governor Rick Perry who as the meme goes, is so prolife he executed 234 people. You know, it's different and stuff. Well, yes, it IS different. To show a little support from around the world, we gathered a few pictures of those who could not be there in person, but donned orange to lend their voices to the mix, as best they could. And on a Monday, on the first of July, these people found whatever orange they could, and posted them, slice-of-life style.

Here's to you, Texas. You can do it.

Amber Snommis looks the snazziest, and it was HER idea to do this. All credit goes to Amber in Georgia.

Teacher Brittany Parks in Florida

Chrissy McIlwraith puts on everything orange that she owns, in Florida.

Kentucky teacher, Emilie Blanton sent in the very first picture.

Emma Wade in Ohio stands with Wendy, literally.

Janel Copeland in Georgia is serious about women's rights.

Joella Striebel of Wisconsin usually uses this bandanna during hunting season, but brought it out for Stand With Wendy.

Lisa Cuellar in California wears orange flowers for the day.

Melissa Elfers in Canada stands with Wendy so hard, even her dog is orange.

Raeven Zayas in California had to break out the stickie notes, but she found something orange.

Sascha and Maddie Fink in orange head gear in Pennsylvania.

Zane Shakur in California bundles up in the heat to stand with Wendy.

Amanda Lewin in New York stole her seven year old's shirt for this.

Bree Casson for the win. She finds orange in the most unlikely places.

Cassandra Gill in Georgia drapes orange around her for women's rights.

Elizabeth Debacker in New Jersey didn't have any orange. But she did have this pen.

Probably similar to the one Emily Santanella of Connecticut used to write this message on her orange-clad hand.

Jackie Monck in Florida puts on orange eye shadow for the event.

Jepeczenka Svadakovic of California wearing all the orange she could find.

Kate Allen in California with orange eye make-up, and beautiful eyes.

Melissa and Greg Elfers from Canada have orange flowers to commemorate.

Phil and Jilly Copeland of Georgia are contenders for cutest supporters.

Sarah Rocha Tormey and her kids in Massachusetts support women's rights in Texas.

Violet Scholl in Florida is my personal favorite.

Alex Nguyen and her children in Washington support Sen. Wendy Davis.

Baby Cuellar in California for women's rights.

Captain Wade in Ohio joins in.

I stand with Wendy, too. Florida.

Emily Farrar and her family in Massachusetts. Even their frame is orange.

Greg Elfers in Canada says Jack Layton would have stood with Wendy.

Jennifer Kappert in Pennsylvania breaks out her orange tumbler.

John Tormey in Massachusetts joins in. Husbands for women's rights!

MaryAnne Luther in Tennessee stands with Wendy.

Patricia Frederickson of Georgia was already at work, so wrote this orange note!

Russ Wait in Mississippi said something awesome, but I can't remember it!

Tiffiny Rossi in Finland had no orange, so she tinted the picture orange.

Zoe Fufferman and her amazing raincoated cat in California.

The special session lasts for a while. Add your pics, send them to Wendy via Facebook or her website or right here! SB9. As Melissa says, "never again, Texas. Not even once."






 

Caloric Content of Muffins Outweighs Gruesome Texas Showdown in State Senate

At 11:30 p.m. last night, eastern time, I sat hunched over my desk, a glass of wine at the ready, preparing manuscripts to send to magazine editors. I nearly jumped out of my chair when the shrill sounds of a woman with a "parlimentary inquiry" blasted over my computer speakers.

I'd totally forgotten about the Texas filibuster! Not because I wasn't interested, but because news outlets apparently couldn't care less about the veritable circus going on within the chambers. No one was saying anything.

Wait, let me rephrase. No one who gets paid to pay attention to newsworthy events around the country was saying anything. Twitter was aflame, and I did my part to engage the 500 friends I have on my Facebook account, many of whom had no idea what I was talking about.

How could they not? This was a level of Tomfoolery not seen since I'd say 2000 when the presidential election was stolen...by a Texas politician (uncanny coincidence, eh?)

Senators shouting over each other, ineffective calls for order, the crowd literally going wild, arrests, miscounts, wrangling of official records to change vote times, slimy political moves, feminism in Texas ("At what point must a female senator raise her hand to be recognized over her male colleagues?" Sen. Leticia Van de Putte (D)TX, who skipped her father's funeral to be there, by the way. This had me clapping in my house at past midnight. Looking like a lunatic, but I didn't care.)

What about this isn't news?

As for me, it was pure luck I had the livestream of the Texas senate going in a tab I'd long forgotten about. Curious about it earlier in the day, I'd clicked over, to no audio, lost interest and left without shutting it off.

Where were you? Where were you CNN? This is...kind of your thing. And you're so "Twittery" and "Youtubey" lately, one would think you would have jumped at the chance to air that livestreaming Youtube video. It's just like a satellite share. It's easier in fact. No coordinates to type in, no networks from which to get permission. Plug in and air the news. You didn't even have to do anything. You had three straight hours of amazing programming just sitting there gift-wrapped for you. Where. Were. You.

Sure, you're there now. 10 a.m. the next morning. But two hours ago, your story on the matter consisted of quotes from random people on Twitter and a brief overview of Wendy Davis' website. Really? You couldn't, I don't know, pick up a phone? Basically, I could have written the story you wrote at 8 a.m. this morning five hours before that. Word for word. Not because I used to be a journalist, but because that's the amount of research you did. Any Twitter or Facebook user even remotely interested in the event could have fashioned your story.

I've never been so disappointed in my life.

Here's a quick rundown of Journalism 101 for you, in case you've forgotten.

Determine newsworthiness:

- Is it timely? (Yes.)
- Is it breaking? (Yes.)
- Is there drama? (Yes.)
- Does it impact individuals? (Yes.)
- Does it have overreaching consequences for the country's population? (Yes.)
- Is it salient? (FFS, YES.)

Women's rights has been a hot-button issue for years now. It's not as if this blindsided you. And sure, state proceedings could possibly be boring and silly, but you had the video at your disposal. You could see that things escalated to newsworthy in .02 seconds. Hell, it was newsworthy as soon as Davis put on her pink sneakers.

Here's what you were doing at 8 a.m. this morning:

- Quoting President Obama's Twitter status from more than 10 hours before that. (Old, vague and irrelevant.)
- Quoting Ricky Gervais' Twitter. (I...what?)
- Quoting some random guy's Twitter who at least said something funny (Not newsworthy.)
- Getting background information on Sen. Wendy Davis from her website. (Lazy. You couldn't confirm she went to Harvard and got pregnant at 19? Really?)
- Outlining the bare bones of the story that anyone could pick up from watching the livestream (Not helpful.)

Here's what you should have been doing:

- Getting to the scene. Seriously. You weren't even present? This wasn't a quick story. You had thirteen hours to get your shit together.

- Interviewing people outside. Can't get in? That's okay. They're taping. Talk to the people outside. Get the human side of the story.

- Calling your sources frantically to get statements from the senators as the proceedings were taking place. Look, I saw Lincoln. They used to do this shit via carrier pigeon, and note-carriers on foot. Surely it's easier now.

- Blowing up the phones of Wendy Davis, the Lt. Governor and Senate President, Kirk Watson, Letitcia Van de Putte, etc. Running them down in person directly after session. Getting the story. You know. Things.

- Stalking the police department. Your people could have been there when they brought the arrests in. On the other side of this, you didn't even have to leave the chamber. Interview police officers at the scene. When they can't talk, call the chief or the PIO. This is easy stuff, people. I did this at 18 years old for a local cable station. No reason why you can't.

- Digging up the rules of the Texas Senate so you could do a feature piece on how many rules were broken in a slimy and horrid way. (Actually, I bet no one does this. If anyone wants to commission me, I'll totally do it for you.)

- Digging up the history of this bill so you could do a feature on how it came to be, who the main players are, and how it all managed to culminate in this wild governmental kerfuffle.

I could go on and on and on, but I'm getting too disgusted.

Journalism, they say, is dead. But Twitter didn't kill it. Bloggers didn't kill it. The Internet didn't kill it. You killed it. By paying your employees literally nothing, by promoting people who don't know what news is but do know how to say "yes, sir," and "you're great, sir."

But, hey, everyone loves a muffin debate, am I right? So get on with your bad self, CNN. You eat that 350-calorie muffin and call it a day. Because it appears you've had yours.

And if you want a true rundown of the actual events, and a number to reach Wendy Davis head over to Accidentally Mommy who wrote a heart-wrenching piece on the implications of this historic filibuster attempt.