Regarding my previous very strong suggestion that Democtrats fillibuster the Supreme Court confirmation of Samuel Alito, it looks like things may be changing from the conventional wisdom that he definitely would not be filibustered.

This from the Chicago Sun-Times today:

And just to short-circuited the Wingnuts when they (inevitably) trot out their misinformation concerning the Republicans approval of Ruth Bader Ginsberg during the Clinton Era...Unlike that case, Bush did not bother to get Democratic approval for Alito, the way Clinton did with Ginsberg:

Keep those calls, emails and faxes going folks! See comments in the previous item on this for a few phone numbers and website addresses!

Chris Bowers of MyDD.com adds these thoughts:

UPDATE: Here are some toll-free numbers to get through to the Senate: 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. Also, be sure to read comments in this item, for several other phone numbers and links to petition efforts, etc!

UPDATE 1/22/06: Guest Blogger Pokey Anderson builds the case for filibuster...

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Rove's tone is more moderated than in the past. We suspect that this is due to a variety of mounting troubles for the GOP along with waning public support. Republicans will want to project positive perception of their candidates while again using 'Swift Boat' tactics for the negative attacks.

UPDATE FROM BRAD: I'll somewhat disagree with the good David Edwards, only to say (at least from the clip posted) it doesn't seem that Rove has "moderated" much. He continues to smash up Democrats with the same misleading and factually incorrect horseshit that he (and Bush and Cheney) have been using for quite a while. Including the inaccurate characterization of scores of Democratic Party positions. Will the "Uniting, Not Dividing" ever stop?!

And, on one more thought, he talks about the remarkable economy of 2005. Bad timing, I guess, since the Dow just plummetted 213 points today, wiping out most of the gains from 2005 in a single day.

UPDATE: New York Times article:

Election Reform advocates have been turning out in droves at several recent public hearings in State Senates around the country. This week, official hearings were held in both California and Arizona concerning the unparralleled mess in which each state now finds itself in regards to Elections and Electronic Voting.

We'll cover the hearings in California shortly, where, as in Arizona, Election Reform advocates (read: citizens who have little to gain other than hope for the ultimate restoration of integrity to this nation's democracy) filled the galleries to capacity in order to witness the astonishing spectacle of public election officials sputtering, spewing and admitting to all in attendance that they haven't a clue how to manage the mess that is referred to as "democracy" in America.

On a side note: One can't help but wonder if we'd even be in the predicament today were it not for the complete abdication of duty by the mainstream media, who has ignored every facet of this issue beyond cursory and insulting smears dismissing such fundamental questions as little more than "conspiracy theory". There is no longer any doubt that those of us who understood the issues at stake here, long ago, were 100% right about it. As well, those who marginalized and dismissed us and the matter were 100% wrong. In the bargain, their delinquency in reporting on these matters in any substantial way has resulted in an unprecedented crisis of confidence in our democracy by the electorate. Such a crisis threatens our way of governance in ways that Osama bin Laden could never have conceived, much less found a way to cause himself.

Anyway, on to the most recent revealing and remarkable chapter in Arizona's Shameful Republican vs. Republican Primary Electoral Fraud Circus, in Maricopa County's Legislative District 20...

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Over 70 million searches are done each day on Google. The Bush Administration want access to Google's search data as well as the pages contained in the Google database.

The government says that it wants the private records to help fight kiddie porn on the internet. Privacy experts are concerned and Google vows to fight the request. A court date has been scheduled for October 2005.

Yahoo, MSN and AOL have already cooperated with the government's request by turning over private search records. Google conducts more searches than Yahoo, MSN and AOL combined.

In the following report from CNN, legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin suspects that the Bush Administration considers the Google search records too important to be left to the decision of a court. He concludes that Google and the government will reach an agreement for sharing Google's records before the court is allowed to create a precedent on the conflict.

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The Democratic led hearings on the illegal, warrantless spying of Americans on U.S. soil by the Bush Administration's NSA is currently being aired LIVE on C-SPAN 1!

Despite the House of Representatives being currently in recess, once again the Republicans have refused to give Chairman John Conyers, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and his distinguished panel, a formal hearing room. So, as with their hearings on the "Downing Street Documents" last year, they're back in the basement this morning.

RAW STORY has Conyers' opening statement.

C-SPAN's online streaming seems to be down, however, the live audio of the hearings is available via Pacifica radio.

(We'll try to update this item if possible, despite a very busy schedule this morning! Those who are listening/watching, feel free to "Live Blog" anything you like in Comments!)

Republican and true Conservative (as opposed to today's majority of phony "conservatives"), Paul Craig Roberts, formerly of the Wall Street Journal and National Review, as well Ronald Reagan's one-time Assistant Sec. of the U.S. Treasury, discusses "Evidence of a Stolen Election" in his latest column out today.

Unlike the bulk of his media and political brethren, clearly Roberts "gets it" as he writes, in review of Mark Crispin Miller's landmark election theft tome, FOOLED AGAIN, "now that Republicans have learned that they can use the electronic machines to control election outcomes, the disenfranchisement of Democrats is likely to be a permanent feature of American 'democracy.'"

Along with an appropriate indictment of the media's overall failure to adequately investigate and report on the crumbling of the most essential, very core of our democracy, ("a free press has proven to be inconsistent with the recently permitted highly concentrated corporate ownership of the US media," says Roberts) he pens the obvious point which the rest of the media, and America along with them, just can't bring themselves to admit outloud:

It does, indeed.

And, in closing, he hits the ball way over the fence:

Homerun, Mr. Roberts.

Arianna is right. If the Dems tap someone like Virginia's newly elected Gov. Kaine to respond to Bush's State of the Union Address --- simply because he was able to win in a supposed "Red State" and sounds a helluva like Bush on the Iraq War --- instead of someone who represents the mainstream views of America like Rep. John Murtha, then they deserve every just dessert that will come to them.

The same is true in regard to any Senate Dem who refuses to filibuster Alito. They will have lost his/her right to be supported by anybody in this country. An illegitmate Presidency only lasts eight years (maximum). The Supreme Court is for a life time.

If Alito is worth voting against for confirmation (and he is), then he is worth doing everything in ones power to keep off of the Supreme Court. To that end, anything short of a filibuster to keep someone like Alito, nominated by a criminal like Bush --- who has lost all credibility, every "benefit of the doubt", along with a supposed "right" to appoint anybody to the Highest Court in our land --- is spineless, pathetic, fruitlessly pandering, and ultimately providing of a perfectly justifiable reason for any voter to refuse to support any such Dem ever again.

If Dems would begin Impeachment Hearings on George W. Bush immediately, if only they had the numbers in Congress to do so, then why, in the wildest stretches of anyone's imagination, would they defer to him the singular power to shift the balance of the court for decades beyond his shameful, criminal, and illegitimate reign?

There are many reasons to filibuster Alito. No matter what the Conservative Media tells you repeatedly. Those are the same folks, after all, who also told you that "John Kerry would be much tougher than Dean to defeat as a Presidential Nominee." And you believed them. While there are few reasons not to fillibuster Alito, aside from what those very same Wingnuts have hypnotized you Dems (again) into believing.

For the moment, however, I'll point to just one reason, as described in this study of Alito's prevarications about and claims of "Unitary Powers of the Executive" as compiled by the good folks of the Oregon Voter Rights Coalition. They, correctly, conclude thusly:

Amen.

I've been out of town for a bit, and on and off line in the bargain, so haven't compiled an authoritative list of actions for folks to take if they agree that Dems should filibuster Alito. Come what may. So I'll leave it to folks in comments here to offer links to email petitions, phone numbers, and other such campaigns to help get the message to Senate Dems that the time for "playing it safe" is over. The time for stepping up courageously to do the right thing for this country...for our country --- fallaciously perceived political costs be damned --- is now here.

Do it Dems, and you will deserve every kudos. Do not, and you deserve every bit of disdain that will come your way from those who might have otherwise supported you to the ends of the earth. Either way, I promise, you will receive very same the slings and arrows from the Right. That's what they do for a living. But if you attempt to pander to the non-existant "middle" yet again --- as the Wingnuts have tricked you into believing actually exists --- I hope you'll not wonder why your base may justifiably turn their backs on you when you may need them most.

Fool you a dozen or so times...shame on you.

UPDATE 1/20/06: Dick Durbin says 'Filibuster now possible'! Details here...

UPDATE 1/22/06: Guest Blogger Pokey Anderson builds the case for filibuster...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Exciting news today as Yolo Co., CA announces they are purchasing the Vote-PAD as their accessible voting device. Other CA counties are very concerned about whether they are going to have any voting system for their June primary. Tucson, AZ has announced that they are looking into using Vote-by-mail as their voting system. A judge in NM has released county elections officials from the lawsuit against the state's use of error prone Sequoia voting machines. The suit stays against the state so it looks like this suit will end up in court....

Guest blogged by David Edwards

PBS Newshour invited several journalists with experience reporting in Iraq to comment on the kidnapping of Jill Carroll. Carroll is a freelance reporter that was working on a story for the Christian Science Monitor when she was abducted and her translator was killed on January 7th.

CBS journalist Lara Logan was asked how the lack of security in Iraq effected the ability to gather news. Logan responded to a complaint, often made by the Bush Administion, that positive stories are not reported as often as negative news.

Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, 39 journalists have been kidnapped and 60 journalists have been killed. About 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in total.

Jill Carroll's kidnappers have given authorities 72 hours to release the 8 women that have been detained by security forces in Iraq. The deadline expires Friday night.

In the meantime, the security situation in Iraq is not improving. Just this morning, bombings in Baghdad have left 23 people dead.

See Lara Logan's comments about the dangers of reporting in Iraq in the following PBS Newshour video.

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Guest blogged by David Edwards

While a number of Democrats spoke with high aspirations, Louise Slaughter's speech may have presented the strongest indictment of Republican ethics:

Here is the full transcript of Representative Slaughter's speech.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Some California counties are becoming a bit nervous about whether they will be able to use their voting machines in upcoming elections. At the same time, the talk in Northern California is about Vote-By-Mail. Meanwhile in Bucks County, PA activists have brought suit against the county to stop them from going to paperless voting. ...

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Last November, The Daily Mirror published details of a "top secret" U.K. memo revealing that President Bush wanted to bomb headquarters for the al-Jazeera news network. At the time, The Mirror quoted its' source saying:

While the story has gone largely unnoticed in the U.S., British media and al-Jazeera have continued investigating. Check out this earlier Brad Blog report for more backstory.

Political pressure to release the memo increased this week when British lawyers retained by the al-Jazeera network announced a lawsuit filed against the U.K. that requests the leaked memo be made public. Soon after, Downing Street officially denied that the memo has anything to do with the bombing of al-Jazeera. But the Downing Street spokesperson would not reveal what the memo did say.

In the following video, Sky News reports on the new lawsuit and the mounting political pressure.

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Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

The rhetoric is escalating in Arizona and a hearing will follow soon. Maricopa County may be the 'poster child' for election fraud and it's not something that will be fixed by voter ID cards. The California SoS seems to have taken a hard-line against the Registrars as he has told them that he won't just certify voting systems to make them happy. And to keep with today's emphasis on the Southwest corner of the country, New Mexico's governor has pledged $11M for a new, paper-based voting system....

RAW STORY has an early release of Gore's full statement replying to the attempted obfuscation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in reply to Gore's speech yesterday.

Letting you know here, since the Mainstream Media will likely ignore it --- as they did with Gore's speech yesterday. Or misrepresent it and twist its facts. As they did with Gore's speech yesterday.

I'll leave others to embarass the Trolls when they try to retread the Gorelick "Blackbag" physical search nonsense (not covered by FISA!) here in comments. I'm taking a few hours off...

Guest blogged by David Edwards

NBC's Today Show reports that the president is demanding that critics "disagree responsibly" about Iraq. Bush says that criticism of the Iraq war is "defeatism" that is hurting the troops morale.

Paul Hackett is a veteran of the Iraq war who is running for the Senate in Ohio. Hackett disagrees with the president's accusations. Hackett says that the troops debate the war just like other patriotic Americans. The troop morale in Iraq remains high.

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