Who can't see THIS multi-vehicle wreck from a miles down the road?
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The "logic" for the Dems not to filibuster is that once they have a Senate majority their LIBERAL judicial choices to balance an extremist, agenda-driven SCOTUS won't be filibustered.
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AHHHHH HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HA HA HA HAHA HA HAAHHAAA!
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No, really that's their thinking.
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Peanut, if that be true then the Democrats need to pull their collective heads out of their asses.
Posted by Judith at January 16, 2006 02:41 AMOne needs a head before one can pull it out of one's dorsal port. After last week's fiasco, I'm not convinced there is a single head in the entire Democratic Senate caucus.
None of this would be happening if there was a viable third party in this country!
Posted by pessimist at January 16, 2006 02:55 AM"None of this would be happening if there was a viable third party in this country!"
Pessimist, I agree but the system doesn't give a third party candidate much hope now or in the future. I guess Ross Perot came as close as anyone could, but he also financed his own campaign.
Most Americans are relatively moderate and they can operate comfortably within a system where one party is slightly to the right and the other slightly to the left. They don't see any great need for a third party. The problem now is that has changed drastically with the rise of the far-right. If there was ever a time for a third party, this is the time, because we cannot depend on our politicians to uphold the principals of the Democratic Party.
Judith and pessimist,
I have to agree. The last time a third party arose was in the crisis of slavery which later erupted in the "war between the states". We are now facing a constitutional crisis of similar propprtions. We are literally in danger of facing the end of our "small d" democracy to a criminal and lunatic "one party" rule of the uninformed.
Modern information technology and the perfection of propoganda techniques has created the daunting prospect that ANY exposure of corruption, incompetent cronyism and corruption will have no effect on the powers that be. We are literally at the stage of bread and circuses.
Thanks to a venal cabal of billionaires, who learned from Goebbels' experiments, a vast web of "think tanks" owned media and thoroughly indoctrinated "young Republicans", have a stranglehold on a fat and careless population's "common knowledge". American democracy is moribund.
I would happily endore a third party in the body politic. Unfortunately, as long as anachronisms like the Electoral College. and the media's insatiable demand for profits reinforce the truly stupid "winner take all" model of politics, it has little chance of becoming a reality. I will state, for the record, if the DC Democrats don't finally "get it" in this election cycle, I will feel a mighty urge to just say, a pox on both your houses and truly work for a viable green party. Unfortunately, by that time, it will be very much too little and far too late.
Posted by DeminNewJ at January 16, 2006 04:20 AMthe system is rigged..that's the problem..despite the medias lies more and more people are becoming affected by the policies of this administration..as the middle class continues to struggle more and more..which they are..despite the lies of the trolls and mostly the corporate owned media..as we sink into moral depravation worldwide because of our policies...as the hallibutons of the world define who we are as a people...as we talk of military action against another oil rich country ...the country is run by the scum of the earth... and today the man who won the 2000 election is giving a speech..we are in a constitutional crisis like never before...listen to him and what he has to say..and think where we'd be today if the supreme court hadn't interfered in the election..listen to him and hope and pray that he decides to run again in 2008..i believe he can unite the country and take back what is rightfully ours...it's not about confirmation hearings or even the abortionissue..it's about the hyjacking of our constitution and our rule of law...we are in trouble and they are in control..they are criminals
Posted by dennis at January 16, 2006 04:35 AMDeminNewJ, I agree. There are 54 political parties and 37 out of the 54 have had candidates run for the Presidency. However, the system is definitely not set-up for them to win anything. The one good thing is that these political groups often force Republicans and Democrats to address issues that they would rather ignore. As the far-right continues their boot kicking march in unison, it becomes more and more evident that we need a third party if the Democrats are not going to stop their advances. Give me a good third party candidate right now, and he/she would have my vote.
Posted by Judith at January 16, 2006 04:43 AMHere we sit and discuss taking action to correct inequities in our society, yet when we discuss a topic vital to the healthy functioning of our nation, we talk about how the system prevents us from doing anything!
True, there is a system currently strangling our democracy. But to think that we can do nothing because of that system is an insult to our history. Does one believe that because King George III of England had the world's most powerful army no one was willing to stand up and say "Enough!"? If you so believe, then you don't know the histlry of your land, and you deserve what you get from Bu$hCo.
Cindy Sheehan knew there was a system designed to keep her in her place, and what has she done? Just how much has she accomplished in garnering attention to the fact that the war in Iraq is wasting the lives of our soldiers? Did that system keep the world from seeing that the current King George is a coward, afraid to face a single mourning mother?
The media system has been far too friendly toward King George - but does that stop progressive bloggers like Kos and Steve Gilliard and Billmon and we of The Left Coaster from taking up the challenge of presenting another view?
Today is Martin Luther King Day. Forty-three years ago he said: "When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, ... a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds'."
As DeminNewJ points out, we are facing a Constitutional crisis - and King George wants to apply the Texas law that allows authorities to cut off life support for the indigent when the funds run out.
Our finds are running out thanks to the profligate spending of King George in terms of lives, treasure, and freedom. That is something we need to confront any way we can.
If we don't, no one else will.
Posted by pessimist at January 16, 2006 04:46 AMPessimist, the system never prevents someone from doing something. A black women stepped onto a bus and changed the course of history. A lesson we all need to remember daily.
Posted by Judith at January 16, 2006 04:53 AMNow is not the time for a third party. We have one party rule and have to secure checks and balances against it. This is the priority.
Posted by mparker at January 16, 2006 04:53 AMal gore won the election in 2000..i am never going to stop saying it..i am never going to get over it...never...i will go to my grave saying it and believing it with all my heart..it was stolen..and THATS THE PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!...the country was hyjacked by criminals who believe that any means whatsoever justifies their ends..we started a war on lies and are about to bomb another one....it's about their oil...oil..oil..oil.oil.oil.... we sit around and talk about scalia ..and alito..what what dianefeinstein has to say ..who gives a flying shit...the people of this country elected al gore in 2000....we were robbed of our rights...and until they are out of power and jailed the rest is all academic..they are the legislature ..judiciary..a stolen presidency..they count the votes...they make the laws..they torture..they wiretap..and the media says ain't life grand...a third party is a long way down the road..i'd like to see a change before i die...
Posted by dennis at January 16, 2006 05:07 AMgod how i miss bill clinton..say what you want about him but he knew how to play the game...he fought em and kicked their ass for 8 years..god how they hated him...they just kept throwing shit on the wall til something stuck..lieing about oral sex..what a crime...crime of the century...we need a fighter..a street fighter of the enth degree..the enemies are powerful...al gore has taken all the shit they can throw on him already...and he's still standing..hope he runs
Posted by dennis at January 16, 2006 05:30 AMHillary was right, it was indeed a far-right smear campaign.
Posted by Judith at January 16, 2006 05:56 AMI hate to say it but something inside me keeps telling me that the Dems are giving the Republicans enough rope to hang themselves with. Unfortunately, whether they realize it or not, the rest of the country is standing on the scaffold too and the Republicans are fastening the noose around all our necks.
Alito will be confirmed. God forbid Bush get another SCOTUS nomination before his term is up. I can't imagine what this country will be like in 20 years. Social mobility will surely be not only dead but dead and buried. And privacy rights won't even be worth talking about.
I need more coffee now.
Posted by snark at January 16, 2006 06:50 AMI know we have covered this before. The Dems have to win a majority back first in both houses and the presidency. Then progressives have to literally bump out the sorry incumbents on the basis for being party to the corporate machine. It'll be slow but that is the only way I see it happening.
Posted by bbtb at January 16, 2006 06:52 AMWe have all been gamed, the Democrats have been played. In three weeks all most Americans will remember or told to care about is Alito's wife crying behind him. Oy. Listening to Feinstein, I either want to throw up my hands or throw up. Oy, just oy.
Posted by The Heretik at January 16, 2006 06:59 AMMary, great post and links. I am adding another site and reason full of Alito info here.
But mostly I wanted to highlight this article by KR Washington editor Clark Hoyt in support of his reporter's Alito coverage. This was in response to immense and enormous criticism by the Republican Party and WH. His response demonstrates just how the republican party fights back against the truth. It is an excellent yet disheartening example of most likely how the WH and RNC pushes back against anyone who shines a light on the facts that the WH doesn't want exposed or want people to hear.
Here is a citation from Mr. Hoyt's article.(my bold)
This hysteria over a carefully researched article that documents the obvious - that Samuel Alito is a judicial conservative - is the latest example of a disturbing trend of attacking the messenger instead of debating difficult issues. Fact-based reporting is the lifeblood of a democracy. It gives people shared information on which to make political choices. But as people in new democracies risk their lives to gather such information, in this country fact-based reporting is under more relentless assault than at any time in my more than 40 years in Washington.He has an email address at the bottom (as do the other reporters smeared by the RNC/WH on the mainpage under correspondents). I have dropped them notes of support/thanks in the past and they are really grateful for it, especially during these times when the media is under assault by the WH. When reporters/media do something good I like to reward their behavior. imo, KR deserves our support. Posted by emal at January 16, 2006 07:07 AM
You know what you libs sound like?....
O, woe is me,
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
I think you all need to find some counseling classes to deal with your depression...especially Dennis who is screaming about the stolen election et. al., stuff all over again....
Then again, maybe you guys are playing a game of sorts, you know role playing. Trying to see who can make the most asisine comments and act like they have some intellectual merit.
I'll leave you to your crying game, but leave you with one more quote, again from Hamlet.
"To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,"
Carpe bellyaching about the bellyaching!
And throwing in a tired Shakespeare quote to demonstrate the intellectual merit of his contribution.
Posted by snark at January 16, 2006 07:35 AMthus conscience does make cowards of us all
Posted by dennis at January 16, 2006 07:37 AMI think you all need to find some counseling classes to deal with your depression
Neo-Con Groupthink mentality. Tolerate no discussion of any other points of view. If anyone has a differing opinion, stomp it flat. Ridicule those who use logic to support their talking points. At all costs, ignore reality and deny the facts. The party line is sacrosanct and no divergence is allowed.
there are two rationales for gore vs bush
the thief's and the victums
Posted by dennis at January 16, 2006 07:57 AMProzac is prescribed for the treatment of depression--that is, a continuing depression that interferes with daily functioning. (Right on point.) The symptoms of major depression often include changes in appetite, sleep habits, and mind/body coordination; decreased sex drive; increased fatigue; feelings of guilt or worthlessness; difficulty concentrating; slowed thinking; and suicidal thoughts.
Prozac is also prescribed to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder. An obsession is a thought that won't go away; (Bush stole election, Bush lied about Iraq, War for Oil...) a compulsion is an action done over and over to relieve anxiety.
I am not a medical doctor, so please do not construe this as medical advice...I do however recommend that further medical care may be warranted.
What is it, official famous quotation blogging day today?..guess we know what some people have been doing lately...
Hey koolaid boy, here's my response to your going off again like a "50 stater" using this quote from someone famous, "There you go again"!
need a hint: (think monkey)
Posted by emal at January 16, 2006 08:16 AMEli Lilly's stock must be down.
Posted by snark at January 16, 2006 08:20 AMbush did steal the election
bush allowed 9/11 to happen
bush did lie about iraq
this war is about oil
and you sure do know alot about prozac
Posted by dennis at January 16, 2006 08:24 AMProzac is also prescribed to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder. An obsession is a thought that won't go away; (Bush stole election, Bush lied about Iraq, War for Oil...) a compulsion is an action done over and over to relieve anxiety.
I am not a medical doctor, so please do not construe this as medical advice...I do however recommend that further medical care may be warranted.
Posted by carpediem at January 16, 2006 08:13 AM
*****
You should entertain treatment for delusional psychotic episodes, as each of your enumerated "delusions" of the "left" actually represent reality.
You, delusionsal fuck, live in an anti-reality where Bush didn't manipulate intel (Downing Street?) didn't go to Iraq for oil (pre invasion secret meetings with oil executives?) and didn't fuck with electoral results (Diebold? GAO?).
You pathetic fuck. The problem for you is that reality always has a way of coming back to kick the shit out of its deniers. Ask the Nazis how it went for them. Propaganda only works in the short term. In the long term, reality rules and makes the liars its bitch.
You're gonna be the little bitch, and I'm gonna laugh as they strap on your straight jacket and cart your sorry ass off to a padded cell.
Posted by God Of War at January 16, 2006 08:25 AMWhy in the HELL didn't the moron Dems on the Judiciary Committee dial up John Edwards and ask the premier trial lawyer in America how to interrogate a hostile and evasive witness?
Do you think it even crossed their grandstanding, feeble minds?
Yeah, me neither.
Posted by God Of War at January 16, 2006 08:28 AMWhat right does he have to name anyone to the Supreme Court for a lifetime appointment?
Um, I don't know. Maybe something called "The Constitution"? Maybe that's what gives him the right? Course, I'm just spitballing here...
Posted by KMan at January 16, 2006 08:44 AMKman,
I think it was a rhetorical question. Don't get yourself all wound up.
Posted by snark at January 16, 2006 08:55 AM"So I ask again, what gives these Senators (and that is all the Senators, and not just the Democrats, who swore to protect and defend the Constitution) the right to betray our constitution by confirming this man?"
Man, there's just no stopping you people. First, you chop down Kerry like there's no tomorrow. You saddle him with gay marriage, you attack him for his vote on the IWR, and then you give the right wing most of their talking points against him. And when he loses? You say he fucked it up.
Well if you want to see who put Bush back in office, look in the fucking mirror. And if you want to know who put Alito on the Supreme Court, look in the fucking mirror. And if you want to know why you'll never amount to anything in politics, look in the fucking mirror.
Only a non-Dem lefty asshole would say that it's the senate doing this thing, when it's the president and all of you left-wing assholes who sat on your hands in 2004. Fuck you: you deserve what you're getting.
Posted by Tolerance at January 16, 2006 09:06 AMSo - not only is Carp a lawyer, but he's a pharmacist or a doctor now????
What talent! No wonder he's supports Owwer Leedur!
Posted by pessimist at January 16, 2006 09:08 AMpess, and from the thread above this one, we learn at one time carpekoolaid was also a divinity student ...so it all fits in just perfectly with the "God talks to/through me directly Preznit".
Posted by emal at January 16, 2006 09:15 AMWhat gives Bush the right? Simple. He's the president, because the people - stupid as they are - elected him.
We lost this battle a long time ago: about the time we were choosing our nominee and we picked preening, pompous, patrician John Kerry to show everyone in America what latte liberals we all are.
Are the Democrats in Congress being ineffectual? Yes. But that's nothing new. The Democratic party doesn't have a consistent message about who we are, and we've been caught off guard by a conservative machine that's taken more than half a century to build.
Fighting each individual scrimmage with all our anger and muscle may feel good, but it won't solve the fundamental problem: we offer ourselves only as an alternative to the Republicans, but when most people agree with the Republicans on an emotional, passionate issue like abortion and gay marriage and we're left out of that loop, we're screwed.
Posted by Teresa Valdez Klein at January 16, 2006 09:25 AMUm, I don't know. Maybe something called "The Constitution"? Maybe that's what gives him the right? Course, I'm just spitballing here...
Interesting thought. Congress reduced the size of the Supreme Court after the Civil War from 9 to 7 justices to keep Johnson from appointing anyone, then bumped it back up for Grant. Since polls are showing we get Congress back in 06, and probably the Presidency in 08, what say we increase the Supremes by 18? The increse in population would seem to necessitate it for appropriate judicial review.
Posted by phidipides at January 16, 2006 09:29 AMpessimist, Judith, and many others:
The solution to the Coke/Pepsi problem of the GOP/DINO false opposition can be nuked by getting more (in number and attitude) progressive candidates elected to congress and forming a liberal caucus.
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It's no accident that the Congressional Black Caucus has been the unsung heart and soul of the Dems, ahead of the curve on Iraq, election fraud and voters' rights. They're largely outside the "machine" aspirations that flabby tired DINOs aspire to in misplaced envy of what put and kept Smirk & Sneer in power.
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But IMO we're seeing the death of machine politics as the SS Bushtanic is about to roll over and its captains drown from under it (and take a few DINOs with it). The political machine is being replaced with something more organic: that people can water and mulch on their own. National ad buys and tone deaf professional message-marketers (whether pointless sacks of crap like Bob Shrum or New Skool replacements who are actually middle aged clowns wearing backwards baseball caps and doing music vid hip-hop arm motions, to show they're representin' the FUCKIN YOUTH, man) are just noise around the signal of grassroots power and media.
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Wonks are deeply concerned about getting something said or corrected on Press the Meat, which no one watches. We've got spores, air and sun.
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Trying to see who can make the most asisine comments and act like they have some intellectual merit.
Posted by carpediem at January 16, 2006 07:28 AM
*****
You'd win that game hands-down, Crappy.
Jonathan Alter gets is exactly right today when he says that we are on the verge of giving up our checks and balances forever because this man the Senate is about to confirm will castrate the Legislative branch without blinking an eye.
I think you and Alter are missing the point here: the legislature is already castrated by its own ineptitude if they are willing to go along with this process. Alito is a classic wimp-turned-bully with the enabling of other bullies. And no one will stand up and call him on this farce. Schumer came close by exposing the fact that the twit does not even know the Constitution or, like Bush, does not care that it exists. But no one in the Senate has been able to make a simple connection--if Alito, by his own admission, will say anything to get a job, why should anyone in the Senate believe a single word that comes out of his mouth? I know they won't call him a liar to his face on the floor of the Senate, but there are ways to ask the question that will make it very clear.
Posted by buck turgidson at January 16, 2006 10:42 AMThe last couple of days, I've seen several people on this blog say that most Americans oppose abortion. Has something changed? Every poll I've ever seen shows a pro choice majority.
Posted by rlp at January 16, 2006 11:18 AMPerhaps oppose is being equated with finding abortion distateful.
I don't like abortion but I don't oppose it.
Posted by snark at January 16, 2006 11:33 AMThis is some pretty miserable shiteating behavior on the part of our Senate heroes.
First, Bush cuts them out of any role in their constitutional advice and consent function before the Alito nomination.
Then, he nominates the fourth Clarence Thomas (and the fourth white catholic male), like those viewpoints and legal approaches had no existing voice on the Court. The Court exists only to vindicate the desires of America's Christian fundamentalists, after all.
Then, they raise not a peep that hearings on admitted presidential lawbreaking might perhaps be a bit more urgent than confirming the lawbreaker's supreme court nominee.
Then, after pushing the hearings into January, they behave as though they haven't the slightest idea how to cross examine Alito, get any information out of him, or even just accurately portray him. Their committee staff admits they really didn't work that hard in preparation for the hearing, and the performance of the Dems certainly supports that.
Finally, they inform us, after having fought the battle to "preserve" the filibuster earlier in the year, that stopping the fourth Clarence Thomas is just not important enought an issue on which to use this weapon. Keep your powder dry, and all.
I'm a fool to believe any longer this party has the ability to fight the conserva-mentlists and the stomach to try to save the country.
Posted by euzoius at January 16, 2006 02:36 PMI am not a medical doctor Posted by carpediemYou are not even a rational featherless biped. Posted by Mike at January 16, 2006 02:59 PM
Since polls are showing we get Congress back in 06, and probably the Presidency in 08, what say we increase the Supremes by 18?
Yep. Keep believing those polls. They've worked out pretty well in the last few elections, no?
Posted by Kman at January 16, 2006 03:02 PMAssociate Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
Nice ring to it
Posted by peter at January 16, 2006 03:03 PMI am so sick of Carp's inane postings. Would someone please break his fingers so we don't have to endure his idiotic rantings. He never says anything knew, just the same old bs.
Posted by Judith at January 16, 2006 03:47 PMI think if 'the ruler' believed he were above the law we wouldn't have the AG scheduled to testify before the Senate.
And by the way, get over 2000 already. Souter proved 'The Right's" point on liberal judges with his disent, which stated that "while there is a valid equal protection claim...." and then voted no, even though the only question before him was one of equal protection.
If he'd have voted on the case, not what he wanted, it would have been 6-3 and you wouldn't have much to talk about.
Posted by Crazy Politico at January 16, 2006 05:59 PMCrazy---Could you possibly be any more incoherent?
Since you can't understand the opinions in Bush v. Gore, it's not a big surprise you were able to "get over it".
Posted by euzoius at January 16, 2006 06:30 PMThe end is coming an this goverment has to fall to set up God`s kingdom.I just hope God can forgive all that Bush has done in the past against all man kind.Remimber the 10 comandments an the meek shall inharet the earth.All I can say is to VOTE them out that changes our constustion an we the people of the United States control what the goverment does.
Posted by Robet at January 22, 2006 10:03 PM