SPREAD THE WORD - FILIBUSTER FRIDAY
NO CRONY.COM Today is the first day to the rest of your life. I tried to find who
coined this phrase but without results. Anyway, this expression fits in
well today folks, if we sit back and do nothing like the Bush plutocrats would like us to do and allow our constitution to get one more hole blasted through it. A breach big enough for Bush to stick his hand through and give us the finger,  once again! You know about the VULGAR BUSH FINGER the one he has thrown at us since he and his groupies took over our government. The appointment of Alito to the SUPREME COURT says Adios to government by the people. One more notch in the conservative, rightwing, religious fanatic's bedpost. This Judge has worn his staunch, mossback, sanctimonious ideology on his sleeve, since he entered adulthood (when he stopped being seen but not heard). Some of his writings have proven this and if the people who are suppose to represent us (I'm talken about you Dems there in DC) don't see or refuses to eyeball this scrawl upon the old proverbial wall, to HELL with all of you. (Just in case you are thinking about giving only an up or down vote to this man's appointment, read the several paragraphs below:) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABORTION: Working in the Reagan Justice Department during the
1980s, Alito wrote two documents that clearly demonstrate opposition to abortion. As a Philadelphia-based appeals court judge, Alito also staked
out positions supporting restrictions on abortion. His 90-year-old mother said the day his nomination was announced, "Of course, he's against abortion." When meeting with congressional leaders after his nomination, however, Alito promised that his personal views on abortion would be put aside if he were confirmed as justice.
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE FOURTH AMENDMENT RIGHTS: As a lawyer in the solicitor general's office during the 1980s, Alito argued that a police
officer was justified in shooting an unarmed 15-year-old trying to avoid
arrest after a burglary. In the memo, written when the administration was weighing whether to get involved in a case that was then pending before the Supreme Court, Alito wrote that shooting was reasonable within the definition of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. The young lawyer concluded that a "fleeing suspect in effect states to the police: 'Kill me or let me escape the legal process, at least for now.'" He added, "If every suspect could evade
arrest by putting the state to this choice, societal order would quickly
break down."
DEATH PENALTY: In an appeals court case that was overturned by the
Supreme Court last year, Alito upheld a decision handed down in a
17-year-old Pennsylvania death penalty case. The defendant, convicted of robbing and killing a tavern owner, later argued his lawyers failed to
consider important court material. A lower court sided with the defendant, but that decision was overturned on appeal. In a 2-1 opinion written for the majority, Alito said the defendant's lawyer had done enough to represent him. JUDICIAL ACTIVISM: In a 64-page response to a Senate Judiciary
Committee questionnaire, Alito said that federal judges must constantly
guard against slipping into judicial activism to get the result they want
on cases. Yet he said he saw no problem with federal judges creating
strong remedies "when a constitutional or statutory violation has been
proven."
RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS: As an appeals court judge, Alito appears to be a
staunch defender of religious freedoms. In 1999, he wrote the majority
opinion allowing Muslim police officers in Newark, N.J., to keep their
beards, broadening an exemption the department had allowed only on medical grounds. That same year, he joined the majority in ruling that a City Hall holiday display in Jersey City, N.J., containing a creche, menorah, a banner celebrating diversity and secular symbols of the season did not offend the constitutional separation between church and state.
FREE SPEECH: As an appeals court judge in 2004, Alito helped to
decide that a Pennsylvania law banning paid advertisements for alcohol in college newspapers was unconstitutional. In the ruling, he said that the state faces a heavy burden anytime it tries to restrict speech but had
offered only "conjecture" to support its contention that the ad ban would slacken the demand for alcohol by underage college students. Click here to see more: Jan 8, 2006 — Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has an extensive paper trail
And now let's see you stand up against this discriminatory nominee and FILIBUSTER . If you don't, it will mean you (Dems) are finished as the opposition party and we will know indubitably, that we do not have a political mouthpiece...
HELLO RALPH NADER. HELLO GREEN PARTY OR GRASSROOTS PARTY OR INDEPENDENT PARTY OR WHATEVER PARTY THAT WILL GIVE US, WE-THE-PEOPLE OF THE USA, A VOCAL SAY IN THE PROTECTION OF OUR FREEDOMS! thinkingblue ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CALL ALL YOUR SENATORS LOCAL DISTRICT OFFICES NOW TO OPPOSE ALITO
We have gotten many emails from our participants, asking "what more can we do?" Some have reported senators arbitrarily turning off their answering machines at night, or long waits on hold. Are they trying to hide from the thousands and thousands of their constituents who are raising their voices to demand that they filibuster the evasive Alito? Even if you have already sent your personal message by email or made some phone calls, we have added a FABULOUS extra function to the main action page where you can instantly lookup all your senators local district
offices phone and fax numbers with just one click.
http://www.nocrony.com
SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT FILIBUSTER FRIDAY
If the other side can have a so-called "Justice Sunday", we can have our own "Filibuster Friday", and that day is tomorrow. In just the Last 24 hours we have seen a major shift in momentum. Today, Senator Leahy came out with a very strong statement that he recognizes the immense threat to our freedom and democracy in allowing a dangerous and unpopular president to install a fifth and controlling vote to hold that our Constitution actually intended to create an executive dictatorship.
Tomorrow we need to show our support for those senators who are starting to stand up now by hitting every phone they've got right down to the district level with our phone calls and faxes. Get all your numbers with one easy click at
http://www.nocrony.com
Those you who like to call in to progressive radio programs, we have all their call in numbers too at the site above in the right column.
Call them and ask them to talk up Filibuster Friday all day and night long! Let's start early and snowball the thing all day long. Ask them to give out the easy to say and remember URL above as much as possible.
Senators have said they are "undecided" on a filibuster. But we the American people HAVE decided and all our senators have to do it get it.
Some senators who are too still too cowardly to demand a filibuster are saying they will make Alito an issue in the 2006 election. It'll be an issue alright, in their OWN primaries! Any officeholder who will not stand up for this one must never hold public office in any capacity ever again. And the difference is whether you will stand up YOURSELF right now and make those calls to their local district offices. Make calls to the toll-free numbers 888-355-3588, 888-818-6641 and 800-426-8073 if you can get through there too.
It is not enough to vote "No." They must vote "Hell, NO!" It's called a filibuster. Filibuster Friday.
Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.
If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at http://www.usalone.com/in.htm
Powered by The People's Email Network Copyright 2005, Patent pending, All rights reserved ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PS: Mark Morford's column say it all! Thinkingblue Sam Alito On Brokeback Mountain What do the bitter neocon nominee and the amazing Oscar-bound film have in common? - By Mark Morford, SF Gate ColumnistFriday, January 20, 2006
There is this theory, more of a truism really, tossed about like a fuzzy beach ball by the gurus and the masters and the mystics since Jesus was but a lint ball of possibility in the Great Belly Button of Time.
It goes like this: When human consciousness expands, for whatever reason and with whatever stimulation and even if you can only measure it in hairsbreadth, when our nasty habit of harsh judgment falls away and people begin to get a little bit, you know, lighter, there is always, as sure as there's someone who hates the sunrise, a clampdown, a recoil, a desperate need by the terrified and ever-paranoid conservative sect to, you know, put a quick stop to this so-called awakening crapola ASA-damn-P. As soon as people begin realizing there's more to this brief little slice of existence than hate and war and the constant drumbeat of fear, there's always resistance, a reactive sneer at the idea that people might be waking up, even a little, and it's all in the name of protecting the status quo and defending the power base and not upsetting any of those carefully wrought prejudices, about making sure everyone stays quiet and doesn't ask any difficult questions of the Authority. Religious groups make phone calls and complain. Big chunks of money get thrown into the pockets of sanctimonious politicians. Quasi-religious bonk-job leaders declare sex and music and gay people the source of all woes and vices and diseases. Ugly new laws get passed. And yes, bitter, convulsive justices get appointed to the Supreme Court. Just like, you know, right now. Witness, won't you, the confluent forces, the twin streams of conflicting culture represented by the amazing "Brokeback Mountain" movie phenomenon, a spare and sad and highly controversial little indie-style flick that is shaking up the homophobic community and raking in the Golden Globes and which now seems a shoo-in to win an Oscar or four, as compared and contrasted with, say, the humorless, depressing, dry-as-death Samuel Alito Supreme Court nomination. Oh yes, we have a match. Do you see it? Look closer. On the one hand, here is the astounding reach and power of this rare and striking little film, an emotional tinderbox of a movie that, in the wrong hands or with the wrong marketing or if it had been off pitch by just this much, could have very easily been trashed and quickly dismissed, would have hobbled the careers of two up-and-coming hunk actors, been mocked across the board and demonized by the religious right as revolting gay propaganda, the source of all ills, proof of the existence of the devil himself. Of course, the latter is still happening (isn't it always?), but the amazing thing is, no one seems to care. The screech of the right's homophobes is being easily drowned out by the fact that this astonishing, pitch-perfect film is now considered a movie that, quite literally, changes minds. Shifts perceptions. That moves the human experiment forward and makes people truly think about sex and gender and love and not in the way that, say, "Pride & Prejudice" makes you think because that kind of thinking is merely sweet and harmless, whereas "Brokeback" slaps bigotry and intolerance upside its knobby little head and induces heated discussions of the film's dynamics and politics and ideas of love over a bottle of wine and some deep curious sighing. That's one side. On the other hand, here we have this relentless neocon spiritual death wish, as evidenced by the imminent appointment of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, yet another dour white male judge who, by all evidence, will do everything in his power to keep America's spiritual, humanitarian and sexual progress -- you know, the exact kind of universal awareness illuminated by intensely intimate movies like "Brokeback" -- locked in the ironclad box of anti-women, anti-gay, power-über-alles conservative thinking for the next three decades or more. Of course you may say: Oh please, this is just silly, no way is there a direct connection between Alito and "Brokeback." I mean come on, one's just a heartbreaking gay love story and one's a massive disheartening political maneuver and they simply have no direct correlation in this world as we know it and to draw a correlation is to, well, make stuff up. To which I say: You are right, but only a little. Of course Alito is not about to be appointed to deflect "Brokeback"'s message per se, but rather, he is being installed in general reaction to, in attack on, in preparation for what "Brokeback" and its ilk represent. Which is, of course, the aforementioned awakening, the shift, the movement toward something new and different and open. Do you see? This is the ever-present push-pull of the culture. This is how we stumble toward the light, gasping and bleeding and with painful rope burns on our wrists. After all, there is no progress forward -- intellectual, spiritual, sexual or otherwise -- without a concomitant blood-curdling scream from the power brokers and the religiously terrified to hold it all back. Change brings fear. Sexuality brings confusion. For every person who has his rigid homophobic ideology shattered by "Brokeback"'s emotional hammer, there is a confused neocon who redoubles his efforts to replant it. But it doesn't matter. No matter the heat and bile of the resistance, no matter how brutish or sanctimonious the stranglehold of our leadership, no matter how many complaints about nipples or wailings about intelligent design or accusations of a "gay agenda," no matter how many uptight neocon judges they appoint, progress still manages to find the cracks, to slip through the holes, to seek the sun. Consciousness expands anyway. The river flows on. The awakening continues. It is always the way. And the Bushes and the Cheneys and the Rumsfelds, the Gonzalezes and the James Dobsons and the Sam Alitos of the world, they can only stand at the base of that mountain of new awareness and pass their laws and beat their chests and scream their resistance as the mystics and the masters just smile that ageless, knowing smile and walk away.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Thoughts for the author? E-mail him. mmorford@sfgate.com
ADIOS FREEDOM OF SPEECH!
READ:
QUOTATION OF THE DAY
"Psychopath's not a narrow term anymore...I've heard it applied to whole
cultures on occasion. It's even been applied to me once or twice. Reality
is so flexible these days, it's hard to tell who's disconnected from it
and who isn't. You might even say it's a pointless distinction."(Richard
K. Morgan)
CAROLYNCONNETION - I've got a mind and I'm going to use it!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
<< Home