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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 01/26/2006 : 11:54:44 [Permalink]
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beskeptgal scrawled: quote:
I'm sorry moveon wasted their political capital so to speak on Roberts because they need it more now
It may be that "political clout" works more like muscle use than like a limited resource; if you don't use it, you lose it.
Some of the Democratic senators seem to be carefully saying all the right things for posterity, but their only possible effective weapon, the filibuster, is something they seem terrified to use. If they aren't willing to put their cajones where their base's heart is, they are likely handing over the judiciary to Bush's idiotcracy and the nascent neo-facism of religious right.
marfknox opined: quote:
Fundamentalist Christians can't even start their own party
They don't have to start their own party, they've already neatly hijacked the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, and Earl Warren, the (formerly) Grand Old Party. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2006 : 13:27:30 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
Looks more and more like Alito will be confirmed, unless before the vote, he manages a major screw up, like saying "Thank God the Judicial Committee didn't ask me about my membership in NAMBLA" near an open mic.
Y'think....? Naw, too good to be true or else he has shown a vulpine cunning in covering it up.
I'm hearing unofficial rumblings that Kerry might filibuster. I hope it's not just the slumgullion I had for breakfast working....
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2006 : 19:04:08 [Permalink]
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Kennedy has issued a statement that he backs Kerry.
This might just become the political fight that it deserves to be.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2006 : 19:26:29 [Permalink]
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filthy gabbled: quote:
Kennedy has issued a statement that he backs Kerry.
This might just become the political fight that it deserves to be.
Great! My daughter worries the filibuster spectacle will be "so boring," given Senator Kerry's inimitable speaking style. I replied that a filibuster is perfect for such a rhetorical style, since in a filibuster, quantity counts, not quality. Senator Kennedy, once a powerful speaker, now fits this requirement, as well.
Now I'm going to have to rent the Jimmy Stewart classic, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." My daughter, who rented it recently, tells me the site she ordered it from described it as a "madcap comedy." Of course, it's neither, not by any long shot.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2006 : 01:55:40 [Permalink]
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I hope they do it. I'm so disgusted with the continual news reports, "He will be confirmed", "Looks like this is just a formality", "He has enough votes" and on and on and on.
Gee was anyone surprised Zell Miller is endorsing Alito like an Abramoff junkie? I wonder if he's on the take with the rest of them or just senile like Ted Stevens? I guess senile fits the picture better. (When was the last duel between Senators anyway?) |
| Edited by - beskeptigal on 01/27/2006 01:57:43 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2006 : 03:07:09 [Permalink]
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beskeptigal yodeled:
quote:
Gee was anyone surprised Zell Miller is endorsing Alito like an Abramoff junkie? I wonder if he's on the take with the rest of them or just senile like Ted Stevens?
You give Zell too much credit. There's no "or" to it. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2006 : 14:06:55 [Permalink]
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Senator Clinton has joined Senators Kerry and Kennedy in supporting the filibuster.
But it now appears this is all a silly waste of effort. CNN TV news dismisses Kerry's effort as "Quixotic." According to a gloating White House spokesman, stopping the filibuster is a slam-dunk certainty, ranking, I presume, right up there with victory in Iraq.
As CNN.com explains:
quote:
The White House expressed confidence that Alito's supporters had the votes needed to cut off a filibuster.
The White House was so confident, in fact, that Bush spokesman Scott McClellan openly mocked Kerry's actions.
"I think it was a historic day yesterday. It was the first ever call for a filibuster from the slopes of Davos, Switzerland," McClellan said. "Maybe Senator Kerry needs to be spending more time in the United States Senate so he can refresh his memory on Senate rules. Senate rules say you have to have the votes in order to filibuster."
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2006 : 15:37:35 [Permalink]
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More Rudness concerning Alito:
quote:
1/27/2006
Filibustering Alito For Reasons Other Than Alito:
In the entire political calculus over a potential filibuster, let us for the moment remove Samuel Alito as the physical derivative. 'Cause, truth be told, despite pathetic polls and pouting presidents or putrid politicians, most people couldn't give a happy monkey fuck about whether or not Samuel Alito is on the Supreme Court. Most people aren't paying attention, and when they turn on the CNN or the Fox, no one's tellin' them that Samuel Alito rapes hobo corpses after beating them to death with beagle puppies. So if you ask average Joe, Jane, Jose, Juanita, whoever, if Alito oughta be on the court, chances are they're gonna say, "Sure, why the fuck not?" or "Si, porque la cogida no?"
For Democrats to actually fear an ad campaign that says, with low, evil music playing, "Charles Schumer wouldn't let the nomination of Samuel Alito come to a vote on the floor of the Senate" is to fear dust mites, to fear shadows. Besides, the instant comeback of "Didn't filibuster Roberts, bitch" seems to take out the whole obstructionist charge.
Then here's a brief list of reasons to filibuster Alito that have nothing to do with Savage Sammy:
- Because President Bush authorizes spying on Americans without a warrant.
- Because President Bush authorized torture by Americans and through renditioning.
- Because President Bush detains people without charge for an indefinite period.
- Because President Bush ignores whatever laws he wants, even if he signs them.
- Because President Bush lied about Iraq to get us into the war.
- Because the Army is stretched "to the breaking point."
- Because the reconstruction of Iraq is being fucked up, too.
- Because President Bush refuses to acknowledge what it's gonna take to help the people of the Gulf Coast.
- Because Ford is getting rid of 30,000 employees.
- Because Karl Rove still has a job.
- Because President Bush and the Republicans fail to fully fund the bullshit "No Child Left Behind" program.
- Because President Bush denies the existence of global warming.
- Because the Medicare prescription drug program is a clusterfuck that will end up in people dying because of its existence.
- Because President Bush denies any connection to Jack Abramoff.
- Because President Bush refuses to speak before any audience that doesn't adore him.
- Because Dick Cheney exists.
- Because Osama Bin Laden is either living free or died free.
- Because Donald Rumsfeld still has a job.
- Because the White House has stymied every investigation into its fuck-ups.
- Because President Bush calls spying "terrorist surveillance" and pollution "Clean Skies" and money to churches "Faith-Based Initiatives."
- Because Richard Scaife doesn't need another tax cut.
- Because there has to be a line in the sand, somewhere; otherwise, it's just one long desert until who-knows-when.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Rubicon95
Skeptic Friend
USA
220 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2006 : 15:57:03 [Permalink]
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I admit I'm a lurker and I said goodbye to this blog a while agor. But dang I like the posts on this site.
Draw your attention to Kelo V New London.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._New_London#Majority_and_concurring_opinions
Look at who sided with with big business in Kelo V
New Haven. Souter, Ginsberg, Breyer, Stevens and Kennedy
(Yes Kennedy who took Borks place after Bad Teddy
flambe'd Bork.)
They said yes to taking your property and giving it to big
business under eminent domain. They ruled on the precedent
of Public Purpose not the original intent of Public Use.
Those justices brought land ownership rights back to the
medieval age.
Do you think Bork would have agreed??? I doubt it.
Look who opposed, Scalia, Thomas, Renquist, O'Connor.
It strikes a chord up here in MA. When the built the SE
expressway, they used eminent domain and gave the property
owner pennies on the dollar for their land. And that was
for public use of alleviating traffic not procuring revenue.
The way the state did it was horrible.
Just wait until the start using that precedent in the 9th
Ward of New Orleans.
You may not like it but if Alito is an originalist, your
property rights will be safe with him on the court. Rather
than another Souter, or Ginsberg or Kennedy.
Or do you agree that the local gov't can sieze your property
and give it to a Motel 6, or Pfizer, or Halliburton because
they can't get enough revenue out of you? |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2006 : 17:47:55 [Permalink]
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Rubicon95 related:
quote:
You may not like it but if Alito is an originalist, your
property rights will be safe with him on the court. Rather
than another Souter, or Ginsberg or Kennedy.
Of course, a true "originalist" would not support women's right to vote, as one of many possible examples.
Okay, I agree that the issue of the obscene abuse of imminent domain for private gain is a serious matter. Though in my mind, it's not right up there with other issues Alito is likely to rule upon, such as reproductive rights, unwarranted spying upon Americans, creeping theocracy, the power of the Imperial Presidency, the Supreme Court itself intervening to throw elections, or the torture of terrorist suspects. I've see no evidence that Alito is to be trusted on these issues.
We all rank issues according to our own priorities. I will accept that the Kelo v. New London case is perhaps the most important to you. How Bork would or wouldn't have ruled in that case seems moot to me. Do you have any evidence that Alito would have ruled differently?
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2006 : 21:51:33 [Permalink]
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quote:
You may not like it but if Alito is an originalist,
Alito is a christian dominionist.
The current codeword for dominionists is "strict constructionist".
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2006 : 22:13:17 [Permalink]
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With Alito on the SC, it's not unthinkable that we will see a ruling that puts Intelligent Design in public schools.
'Nuff said.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/28/2006 : 03:17:39 [Permalink]
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H.H accounted:
quote:
With Alito on the SC, it's not unthinkable that we will see a ruling that puts Intelligent Design in public schools.
Quite thinkable (shudder!)
Now, I find myself weirdly wondering whether, if the issue comes before the Supreme Court, a Justice Alito might look to the Vatican for guidance on ID, rather than following the Protestant fundies. What a strange world, where we might have to rely upon the same Church that persecuted Galileo Galilei to help defend evolutionary science. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 01/28/2006 03:19:39 |
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