The Week in Links: August 31

Don’t forget that today is the deadline to vote for SXSW PanelPicker. Vote for Tits and Sass! And our friends.

Not everyone in Illinois is happy about the new pole tax, which will benefit the state’s Sexual Assault Prevention Fund. Disapproval of the tax spanned across political party lines and gender, according to a graph published on Sodahead.com.

Bubbles wrote about “The Art of the National Convention Strip Club Trend Piece” at Jezebel, because she just couldn’t take it anymore.

But, since we’re already talking about it: the RNC has not delivered the long anticipated revenue boost to Tampa strip clubs that everyone had been so excited about, says the New York Daily News. Perez Hilton begs to differ, saying that some clubs have doubled their profits this week.

Shockingly, someone wrote an article about Tampa strippers that was actually about a real thing: healthcare. A hearty T&S pat on the back to Scott Keyes for this ThinkProgress article.

The Austin American-Statesman published an editorial critiquing the criminalization of sex workers from a fiscal standpoint: Texas has an estimated 352 women in jail for prostitution, each of whom is costing the state $15,000-$18,000 a year. Texas also has a unique law that makes a person’s third misdemeanor prostitution conviction a felony, punishable by imprisonment in a state facility.

Fox News figured out that sex workers advertise on Backpage.com—you can’t get anything past those guys!

A brothel bust in Manassas, Va., resulted in nine arrests, and a sting in Columbus, Ohio, resulted in “at least” 16.

Vivid CEO Steve Hirsch criticized the GOP’s proposal for stricter obscenity and anti-porn laws.

Read what Mitt Romney has to say about the government’s involvement in our porn consumption here.

Former Michigan schoolteacher Susan Brennan filed a federal employment discrimination lawsuit against her school district, claiming they fired her over her previous job as a stripper.

Actress Ari Graynor discusses her role as a phone sex operator in the film “For a Good Time, Call,” which opens tomorrow.

The New York Times published a tourist report of a legal brothel in Nevada.

Porn star Tasha Reign talked to the LA Weekly about her double life as a UCLA student.

Reality TV star Alicia Gustaferro, whose family appeared on Wife Swap, was arrested and charged with prostitution this week.

A Santa Ana man who was convicted of the September 2009 rape of two prostitutes was just granted a new trial.