Freak Show....

I came home yesterday afternoon to a CNN email alert confirming the news that I had expected, that Alito had been confirmed. I suppose I could only expect things to spiral down from there, because everyone I know has been pretty depressed since the cloture vote. I guess I spend too much energy trying to fathom the psychology of people who trade tomorrow for today in the name of political expediency or to keep a job or go along and get along. Gore's speech stirred me up and reminded me of those innocent days when things were going OK, and the worst thing that I could go on about was Welfare Reform and NAFTA. I find it heartening to hear someone smart talk in a world of the cross eyed monkey with the swagger talkin' Texas bullshit. I cant even say that Gore was ever my favorite one of them out there, but man, did I come out of this thing hoping for the Draft Gore movement to pick up steam.

Here is a guy with some experience under his belt, who is smart as hell, has been vetted, and is a straight arrow. I never want to hear again how Tipper is the one who wanted to sticker music or whatever. Fer chris'sakes, she wanted a sticker or ratings system, not to edit the material like Walmart does. And I guess its an imperfect world, but as a busy parent I'm glad to know if an artist is telling my kid that suicide is cool. I just don't think that that is relevant now anyway, in a time of wiretapping and torture prisons. Maybe more relevant socially is that Tipper came out for and about depression. That was a brave thing to do and is something that is horribly important. In any case, its alot easier to like both Al and Tipper now that we've known Bush. I'll write more about them some other time as I figure this out and get the information I need to start backing my initial choices to replace Bush,(and I know that Edwards is a strong favorite for me going into this.)

After a long week, through the weekend, of grass roots organization the internet leftys managed to fill the voice mails of every phone line of every senator who might vote for cloture and/or support filibuster. The idea was to urge them to listen to us and to support those who were listening. That Kerry stepped up was really a surprise to me because he has been so caught in his own brahmin game that it just doesn't seem like he has what it takes at all to go beyond being a beloved old timer senator like Kennedy. I think that it was the influence of the Gore speech and that Kerry's advisors were telling him that if he was even playing with the idea of trying to run again, he'd better do something bold. The rest began to fall in line as we filled up their voice mail boxes, with Hillary even saying no and an hour later saying yes after realizing the swelling public feeling.
I guess I never imagined that certain of them would say that they would vote no on Alito but yes on cloture. Or that they would support a filibuster but then vote for cloture. What does that mean for our party? We all expected Lieberman to act like the slimy wuss that he is, but too many broke ranks. This is a huge weakness in the party, and we are on the defensive, letting the Republicans shape the agenda. There is some feeling that we have to save our strength for the really important upcoming fight, but what if THIS is that fight? What if NOW is the time?

How did the Republicans make the filibuster into something that is so bad. It is a tool to be used in our beautiful system of checks and balances, so that if one side has become overly powerful there is a last outlet. If the Republicans were to invoke the "Nuclear Option" and change the laws they would be just hurting themselves. They cant be so shortsighted as to not realize that they may not always be in the majority....can they? Anyway, if not for the ranks broken in the cloture vote, there were enough votes to filibuster this nomination and it would have been successful. If filibuster just prolongs discussion and debate, what were they afraid of? Having to ask some harder questions than could be contained in the stilted process in which an experienced lawyer can certainly dance around Senators, who know the law but not how to cross examine a non-forthcoming extremist on a mission.
Well, I have heard alot of commentary about this and EJ Dion on Sam Seder's show made some interesting points in that even as this court has gotten more conservative and we may have some fights ahead for our rights and for the common man as opposed to big business, its gonna be the next nomininee who, if very conservative, will push the court into a pre-New Deal age conservativism which could be expected to throw out most protections that we don't even pay attention to right now, and also to threaten things like environmental protections. Every safety net is slowly disappearing and soon there will be little left for the middle and lower classes.

So, as much as many people feel like they want to move to Canada after this week,(which just elected its most conservative leaders ever, by the way,) I think its really important for us to move on to taking back the house and senate, and then making damned sure that we have a candidate who can win the White House. None of this Hillary crap; its just not the right time and I don't believe that she's the right person. I'm going to be very sad if I have to put a Hillary sticker on my car and find some way to defend her to the neocons around here. She just provides too much ammunition in her very being and attitude. I really hand it to her as a senator and I'm not ruling her out forever, but its such a gamble at a time when we need to start to rebuild...everything...diplomatically, financially, rich vs. poor, taxes, health care....Is there anything that Bush hasn't screwed up?

I don't have much yet to say about the State of the Union because I view it as a big commercial even when Democrats are in office, and lately, with Bush in office, its just a freak show. All I've heard so far are lies, lies, lies...I cant believe that someone can craft so much crap out of the air and that so many people will believe it.
One interesting thing that came my way today in an email from a friend is the idea that maybe the Dems didn't want to filibuster because it takes the focus off of the empty, pathetic, SOTU. That perhaps they saw that Alito was gonna get in anyway and that a filibuster was counter productive to the spotlight shining on Bush.
I disagree with that. I think that there is no way to dim that spotlight right now. Bush is on a runaway train. His approval rating is at 39%....39%!!! Even people who voted for him are saying to me that they cant possibly vote for a Republican again anytime soon. He's gotten his stink all over the whole party and if they somehow win something coming up it will definitely be due to voting machine fraud.
We know now that if those senators hadn't broken ranks and voted for cloture there would have been enough votes for a filibuster and likely Alito would not have made it. But more important even than Alito not making it was the Democrats standing up in unison against this criminal administration. They heard us, they got our messages, and some of them responded. The ones who didn't wont get a penny from me and if there is a way to oppose them in the mid-terms (I am definitely working against Lieberman and Shays,) I will. If the DNC is going to blanket support all democratic incumbents then they will get no money or help from me. I am going to support individual candidates.

Here is a list of the senators who broke ranks and voted for cloture. The year following each name is the year that their term is up. These senators were not representing their constituents, but rather some other plan that they have for their careers or for some false sense of peace between the two parties. Until some of these folks grow some balls or get out of office, we are in trouble:
HA Akaka 2007
MT Baucus 2009
NM Bingaman 2007
WV Byrd 2007
WA Cantwell 2007
DE Carper 2007
ND Conrad 2007
ND Dorgan 2011
HA Inouye 2011
SD T. Johnson 2009
WI Kohl 2007
LA Landrieu 2009
AR B. Lincoln 2011
CT Lieberman 2007
FL Nelson (FL) 2007
NE Nelson (NE) 2007
AR Pryor 2009
WV Rockefeller 2009
CO Salazar 2011

There are also some others who are being very wishy washy, such as Barak Obama....this is worth keeping an eye on. These Senators work for US! I am seriously watching with an eye for who is straight with us and who has real ideals and commitment to fixing this mess.