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Jan. 30th, 2006 03:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ebonlockWell, that's that:
On Alito for cloture:
Aye 72
Nay 25
Okay, so it's obvious there is cloture today. It sucks. But it happens in the big leagues that sometimes you lose an inning. That doesn't mean you stop playing, it just means you take a deep breath and go back to the dugout for some fresh plays.
All this Faxing and phone calling and e-mailing...has scared the bejeebers out of the Washington establishment over the last couple of weeks. You know why? It came from a true grassroots movement. From anger, from true concern, from patriotism -- from a wellspring of individual citizens who cared enough about their nation to get off their butts and do something.
That is a lot of power waiting to be harnassed, folks.
And the powers that be that have controlled Washington, D.C., aren't the ones in the driver's seat of this vehicle. The citizens of this nation are. Something out of their control entirely -- a group of angry citizens who know how to use communications tools, and who aren't going to just sit by and be silent any longer.
If they think the Alito battle is the only one we're willing to fight, they can think again. This was merely the first skirmish.
ReddHedd is absolutely right, and I for one feel proud of myself for acting on my beliefs, and for those 25 brave souls who stood up for what they thought was right. One of them, Barbara Boxer, had this to say:
Although we knew the votes were not there for the filibuster, we though it appropriate so that the American people would know that we are even willing to pursue a losing effort, because the stakes are so high.
Damn straight. I shall be fascinated to see how the actual vote goes, will the Dems who voted against cloture step up and do the right thing? We shall see. If they don't, though, they'd better be aware that their constituents are paying very close attention now.
On Alito for cloture:
Aye 72
Nay 25
Okay, so it's obvious there is cloture today. It sucks. But it happens in the big leagues that sometimes you lose an inning. That doesn't mean you stop playing, it just means you take a deep breath and go back to the dugout for some fresh plays.
All this Faxing and phone calling and e-mailing...has scared the bejeebers out of the Washington establishment over the last couple of weeks. You know why? It came from a true grassroots movement. From anger, from true concern, from patriotism -- from a wellspring of individual citizens who cared enough about their nation to get off their butts and do something.
That is a lot of power waiting to be harnassed, folks.
And the powers that be that have controlled Washington, D.C., aren't the ones in the driver's seat of this vehicle. The citizens of this nation are. Something out of their control entirely -- a group of angry citizens who know how to use communications tools, and who aren't going to just sit by and be silent any longer.
If they think the Alito battle is the only one we're willing to fight, they can think again. This was merely the first skirmish.
ReddHedd is absolutely right, and I for one feel proud of myself for acting on my beliefs, and for those 25 brave souls who stood up for what they thought was right. One of them, Barbara Boxer, had this to say:
Although we knew the votes were not there for the filibuster, we though it appropriate so that the American people would know that we are even willing to pursue a losing effort, because the stakes are so high.
Damn straight. I shall be fascinated to see how the actual vote goes, will the Dems who voted against cloture step up and do the right thing? We shall see. If they don't, though, they'd better be aware that their constituents are paying very close attention now.
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Worth considering...
Date: 2006-01-31 05:51 pm (UTC)Today's GOP is not the Republican party of Lincoln, or Goldwater, or even of Reagan - it's a completely made-over enterprise that has jettisoned its libertarian and small-government leanings in favor of a broadly authoritarian and corporatist program with religious trappings. If I were less concerned about sounding like a stringy-haired Telegraph Avenue lunatic, I would describe it as "fascist."
I've run across an interesting piece in the Prospect about a different approach to values, arguing that "traditional values" have become an upper-class phenomenon: the richer you are, the more likely you are to be married, less likely to divorce, more stable home life, etc etc...and therefore, for instance, the GOP runs strong in the South because they can hold these values up as an aspirational goal for a poorer electorate. I'm not entirely convinced, but anyone who can get a second straight Democrat elected governor of Virginia - especially an admitted death-penalty opponent! - deserves at least a hearing...
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10844
Meanwhile, I would give you my State of the Union drinking game, but when the new Health Savings Account program kicks in, you won't be able to afford the resulting liver transplant. Hell, I've almost had to quit smoking...
Re: Worth considering...
Date: 2006-01-31 07:20 pm (UTC)