Weak, Weak

I got back to the hotel from the client in time to turn on CNN and watch the SOTU. I changed the channel after Bsuh started, went back a couple of times...once to see the Dems moon him over his Social Security statement. Turned it back off I am not strong enough to deal with this. I'll wait for Jane or John or Kos to update me on the high points.

A lonely hotel room a couple of thousand miles from home is no place to get this disgusted and depressed.

Oh crap now Nancy Grace the ghoul of murder is now on CNN HN. I guess it is time to turn on Emeril.

Critical Mass

Even though the vote didn't go the way we wanted today I can't help feel that this demonstration of netroots power marks a turning point. It was an extremely high bar to hurdle. I sense, however, that we are reaching some level of critical mass.

You can pile quite a large pile of radioactive material on the table and the only thing you might be able to do with it is roast a marshmallow or two, maybe a wiener. Get enough together, however, and suddenly you are are capable of changing worlds with the power generated. You have reached "critical mass".

The loose organization of progressive bloggers and related web sites are very close to reaching that point. Everyday they are reaching more people and everyday more people are realizing that if you want to know the scoop and get intelligent opinion from a diverse cross-section of people your only reliable resource is the web. Daily, people from all strata of our society are realizing that the corporate media are not unbiased and not dependable sources for information.

By the way, it's kind of ironic that the man who first proposed the basics of hypertext was named Bush. Vannevar Bush introduced the concept in 1945. The idea was expanded and developed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, who introduced the World Wide Web, HTML, HTTP and URL's in 1990.

Vannevar was born before the turn of the century and the ideas he introduced in his 50's did not become reality until 16 years ago and now, in a very short time, they potentially connect every one of the billions of people on earth with each other in real time and without the requirement for a high level of technical know how. It is virtually beyond the capability of the human mind to grasp the possiblities of such interconnectedness.

We now have millions of blogs all heterodyning and producing unpredictable synergies. Critical mass has either already been reached or will be in the very near future. The evolution of our species is at the next threshold and we will make a difference.

So now what? We keep on doing what we are doing and doing better everyday. We connect. We communicate. We evolve the discourse. We feed off each other's ideas. We produce a synergy of thought that is a force for change that the world has not seen before.

Deny us at your peril.

Fight the Fight that Needs Fighting

Ok. I have now had some sleep and a chance to think a little more about the effectiveness or value of spending so many silver bullets against the confirmation of Alito. I think the politics are important and the field could have been better prepared. You know, the television ads and print editorials and making it clear from the get go that a fight was due.
I think, however, that the overriding issue is to make a stand no matter how doomed to failure it is. We may take some heat for it with the ostructionist label etc. but I think the value from a filibuster is that it gets people aware that it this is not going to be a slam dunk for the forces of darkness that Bush and company want it to be.
All that said I think the biggest win for us would be if we could delay, just until after the SOTU, and wipe some of that smirk off GW's face during the speech.

Several people have floated the idea that Harry Reid gather his troops and get every democrat to filibuster for just long enough to delay cloture long enough to push the confirmation vote to Wednesday.
Think about all the talking heads discussing the fact that the Dems have banded together to make sure the American people know how bad we feel Alito is for the future of the regular guy.
This is going to be an interesting week.

On the Fence

Back in Sunnyvale and trying to catch up on the stuff going on around the blogosphere.

John at Americablog has some excellent points with repsect to why this last minute filibuster will likely prove to be damaging to the Dems. I tend to agree with him and others that insist the left/dems/progressives have not done the background work necessary to make the politics of a filibuster work to the dems advantage. We'll just have to wait and see.

The arguments that you can win through losing are at face persuasive but fundamentally shallow if you haven't prepared the ground to accept the arguments you are losing with. The nuances of this argument seem to be too difficult for a lot of people to understand and that is one of the reasons we need to very careful before we put our necks on the line.

That being said I am still inclined to charge forward and try and mitigate the damage a little later.

I am actually too tired to be trying to reason through all of the arguments right now but my instinct is telling me that we still need to make our best effort to try and stop the Alito confirmation.

Maybe after a reasonable nights sleep I will be able to articulate this better.

Boom My Ass

For those of you that need some convincing that the "Bush Boom" is merely a fig-newton of the collective GOP addled brain here are some details from Max. You can email these to your Bush supporting friends if you have any or can find one for that matter.

A number of observers seem to suggest that the economy is doing very well and that people mistakenly believe that the economy is on the wrong track. The facts are that trends in almost every indicator of the aggregate ‘macro’ economy –- GDP growth, investment, payroll employment, personal income—have been inferior in this business cycle and recovery when measured against earlier comparable periods.

Moreover, the wages of workers (inflation-adjusted) fell in 2005 from 2004 levels and have been falling for several years. For instance, the wage (inflation-adjusted) of the median worker fell 1.3% in 2005. Given declining wages it is not surprising that the typical (median) household income fell for five years in a row through 2004 (2005 income data are not yet available), poverty has risen, and families have gone deeper into debt. Furthermore, health care costs are taking a bigger bite out of family incomes. The bottom line is that people do not feel good about trends in the economy because the things that matter most to them – wages, jobs, family income—have not been making them better off.

The administration claims that its tax cuts have led to jobs and growth. Yet, as we have shown, GDP, investment and other trends do not support this claim. A simpler way of showing the failure of the tax cuts to deliver jobs is to note that private sector jobs, excluding those generated by military or other government spending, have not increased since early 2001. If private sector jobs have not been created in significant numbers, how can one say that the tax cuts have worked?

Thanks Susie

NYT Just Got Back

You have to wonder where they have been since 2000. It's like they have been on some other planet. Well, maybe this is a good sign that at least someone besides us crazy blogger, liberal leftwing, hippy-yippy, pinko Osamaloving tree huggers are beginning to realize how totally screwed we all have been. Welcome back boys.

Quick Catchup

Here I am again crunched for time. Still have to go to the cleaners and pick up last minute stuff and finish packing and make sure the banking is caught up and all the bills scheduled.
I just want to take a moment and remind everyone how important it is to call you Senators and let them know you believe that Alito is not the best choice for America. This thing is difficult but doable. Just do it.
On another note Mustang Bobby has a good reminder up that we have a great opportunity as progressives to change the direction this nation is heading. We cannot, however, do it while sitting on our hands waiting for our saviour to appear. It is going to take activism and involvement and insuring that the electorate knows that the progressive answer is the right answer.
I should have some time when I get to some more catching up this evening when I get to Sunnyvale.

Sleepy bye

Ihave several things I need to talk about here but it is 11 pm and I keep falling asleep at the wheel. I will just have to wait until tomorrow morning.

Last Day Panic

Sorry for the absence but there was a last day of urgent touristing to get done today before I have to head back to Sunnyvale for the week. This time it was the North Georgia hills and all of the folk potters we know. My wife and I have been collectors for years of folk pottery mostly from north Georgia but also from Alabama, North and South Carolina. Over the years we have sought out the hidden valleys where the traditional potters still throw their ware in the old ways and fire it in wood fueled kilns. So we did north Georgia today and just got back home at 945 in the evening. I am bushed and have to get all my ducks in a row for getting back to the west coast tomorrow.

There is some good news however. I didn't buy any more pottery today though our English friends succumbed to a few pieces. Not that I wasn't tempted mind you.

Lots o' Water

All through with tourist duties for now. Nice trip to see the home of our 39th President. The National Park Service has done a nice job of restoring the boyhood farm and the old Plains High School. The POW Museum is worth a visit if you are in the area as well.
Well, promised a picture from the Georgia Aquarium and a review and this is the first chance I have had to do it.
The aquarium is all it is cracked up to be. It was crowded but everything moved along well and I didn't feel the visit was marred by the crowds. Some of the smaller exihibits required a short wait until you could get next to the glass but all of the larger exhibits have plenty of room and are large enough to see even if you are a good distance away. The arctic exhibit with the whales, penguins and sea lions was my favorite as I have a thing for whales but for sheer impressiveness the giant tank of the ocean voyager exhibit is hard to resist. Every exhibit has something to offer. There are several places where you can touch creatures such as rays, dogfish, shrimp and urchins which is great for the kids.
If you are planning a trip to Atlanta the Georgia Aquarium is a must do.

More Touristing

The decision has been made by out guests that they want to see the Jimmy Carter National Historic site in Plains today so that is where we are going. Should take a couple of hours to get there from here north of Atlanta. I think I will try and find time to swing by Andersonville and see the Prisoner of War museum as well. I have been there once and it is worth the stop.
Been to Plains a couple of times but that was before it was a proper National Park so I am looking forward to it. Jimmy is the only President of the U.S. that I have ever met and shaken hands with, on several occasions no less, and I have just finished his latest book. The timing is right and I have always felt that his presidency was underrated and now, when you compare it to the disaster we are experiencing now, it was positively brilliant.

So anyhow, no posting today while I entertain but I haven't been drafted for anything tomorrow so we'lll try and catch up with all the goings on then.

Great Aquarium Visit

The Georgia Aquarium was worth the trip and it didn't disappoint. All of the different themed exhibits were well done and interesting. Tropical, Cold water, etc. The cold water exhibit was where the five beluga whales are and I could have spend hours watching them alone. I have pictures to post when I have a moment.
By far the best exhibit is the "Ocean Voyager" where they have the giant tank and the tunnel that allows you to actually walk among the fish. The "piece de resistance" is the 60 by 28 foot square window into the large tank where the two whale sharks live with some 100,000 other fish, sharks, etc. Amazing and someplace you could spend all day.
Overall a great attraction. Pictures to come as soon as I can get to it.

Tourist Time

Taking our English visitors to the new Georgia Aquarium today. This will be the first visit for us as well. I'm really looking forward to it as I dearly love aquariums and have made the two and a half hour trip to Chattanooga several times to see the very nice one there. I will give a full report later but from everything I have read it is fabulous.

Say No to Alito

John Kerry has an open later to Senators opposing Sam 'the Sham" Alito that you can sign if you don't think America should become a fascist state.

Dear Senators,

I am writing to ask that you vote against Samuel Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court and work hard to convince other Senators to join you.

Judge Alito does not represent my values. He does not represent mainstream American values. I think it’s time that the United States Senate confirms once and for all that extreme ideology has no place on the highest court in the land.

This is a critical fight for the future of our country. It’s no time to sit on the sidelines. That’s why I’ve taken the time to sign this letter and pass it along to my friends and neighbors. And I hope that’s why you’ll step up to the plate and do the right thing for America: defeat Samuel Alito.

I am honored to join John Kerry by putting my name in the Congressional Record against Judge Alito. I call on you to do the same with your vote.

I am not keen on seeing Kerry run for the Presidency again. I supported him last time and he let me down. I think he has a better chance of helping America if he stays where he is. We need a stronger leader. It wouldn't hurt for you to sign the letter though and it will be added to the Congressional Record. You don't have to give Kerry any money.

Next Excuse a Lie As Well

Looks like each lie the Administration has come up with to try and justify breaking the law with respect to spying on Americans without due process has been caught out.

Go read Glenn Greenwald's latest post, which summarily shoots down the latest lie about "probable cause". Glenn points out that in 2002 Senator DeWine proposed legislation which would've amended the FISA law to lower the burden of proof from probable cause to reasonable suspicion (one caveat, for non-US persons only), precisely what the constitution-challenged former NSA head was claiming was why they "had to" break the law. He also claimed they sought such changes but Congress wouldn't give it to them.

Guess What? The one and only James Baker speaking for the Bush Justice Department opposed the law on constitutional concerns.

Here is a Maxwell Smart review of the administration lies.

Would you believe the program was a super secret technology thing? No?

Then would you believe the program was necessary because the FISA court doesn't allow them to act fast enough. No?

How about the program was necessary because Congress wouldn't let us lower the necessary burden of proof. Oh! I forgot we oppposed that ourselves.

Well...how about

We wanted to spy on whoever we wanted to without any oversight or accountability.

Yeah that's the ticket.

He Thinks It's a Done Deal

This from Reuters

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush on Monday told opponents of abortion their views would eventually prevail and urged them to work to convince more Americans of "the rightness of our cause." On the 33rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that established federal abortion rights, Bush addressed activists by telephone from Manhattan, Kansas, and called their goals noble.

I guess Roberts and Alito were not being quite upfront with the Senators over Roe.

Look out ladies. It looks like your reproductive decisions are about to be severely constrained unless we can derail the appointment of Sam "the Sham. Call your representative today... the numbers are in this post.

Look Out! Awakening

If you haven't read Mark Morford's latest you need to. It's another one of his little insightful gems. It deals with the psychic confluence of "Brokeback Mountain" and Sam "the sham" Alito. Here are some teasers.

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.

[Snip]

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.

Like I said it's a gem.

Lies and Damned Lies

Well, Georgia10 over at Kos has an excellent wrap-up of the Moron-in-Chief's successes on the war on terrerists. It is a very disheartening picture when you consider how many lives have been lost waging this "war". I won't even mention the estimated TRILLIONS of our hard earned taxes will have been burned in this clusterfuck.

When I think of how much could be done here and in other countries to diminish suffering and bring some hope and promise to millions of people I can do nothing but cry.

Digby really hits the nail on the head with this post. They are Killing Us Softly

They are going to the 9/11 well again. They say that Democrats are sending talking points to Osama and giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Rove says we don't believe that the government should monitor al Qaeda's telephone calls. The next several months will be spent fending off accusations that if we don't let the president do anything he damned well pleases we are all going to die.

I don't know if it will work again. But I also don't know if I can take this campaign one more time. Five years of hearing the same thing over and over again and watching American sheeple fall for it over and over again is just too depressing. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to January 20, 2009 (and I'm of an age where rushing the future is no longer wise.) The day I no longer have to listen to one more word from this immoral, dishonest, incompetent, delusional prick will be the best day of my life.

Alito Needs a Filibuster

Codepink has asked some of us to help get the word out that momentum is building toward a filibuster, that the right's "done deal" sound bite is nothing but spin, and that people need to call their senators?

Here are the toll-free numbers to the Senate.

Here they are:
(888 818-6641 or (888 355-3588 or (800) 426-8073

And here's a lot more info and links:

All we have fought so hard to achieve could be for naught if Alito were to sit on our Supreme Court.

The good news is that momentum is building for the efforts to stop this abomination of a nomination! The right wing spin that “Alito is a done deal” is being exposed as the propaganda it really is. Now is the time for those who believe in the constitution to push hard to see that the next door Alito walks through has an “exit” sign above it!

One of the things we have working on our side is a lot of internet real estate -- together we can have a major impact.


-----
CALL FOR A FILIBUSTER OF ALITO
1-(800) 426-8073 ask for your Senator(s)

Alito is NOT a “done deal.”

The momentum is building among Democratic Senators. The numbers are growing.

More and more of them are seriously considering an Alito FILIBUSTER.

It is the perfect time to add your voice; they need to know the country is behind them.

It’s time to call your Senators and tell them they will represent YOU by filibustering Alito.

1. Call your Democratic Senators. There are 3 toll-free numbers to the DC switchboard. Ask for your Senator(s) and tell the aide that answers that you urge the Senator to FILIBUSTER Alito. You don’t need to speak paragraphs; all you need to say is that you urge him/her to filibuster Alito.
(888 818-6641 or (888 355-3588 or (800) 426-8073

2. Call your favorite progressive talk show. Say that Alito is not a “done deal” as the Republicans want us to believe and that everyone should call their Senators and urge a filibuster. The filibuster was meant for just such a situation as this. Give out the toll-free numbers over the air. A list of progressive talk shows and their phone numbers is available at http://www.nocrony.com.

3. Call Senators other than your own. For suggestions, see: http://www.codepinkboston.org/filibusterAlito/

More resources:

Want to talk directly with the staff person of your senator who handles judiciary issues? Or, find fax numbers or contact info for your senator's district offices? Find them at: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home

Here are some of the groups that have opposed Alito’s nomination thus far:
http://www.nominationwatch.org/ 2...momentum_agains

WHAT IF ALITO IS DEFEATED? WON'T THERE JUST BE A WORSE NOMINEE? History shows that when the first two nominees to the Supreme Court are rejected, the third is more moderate. See:
"The Case Against Alito," The Nation, editorial | posted January 5, 2006, http://www.thenation.com/doc/200...0060123/ editors

What is a filibuster?
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster

...And, if you want the animated cartoon version of what’s at stake, go to:
http://www.markfiore.com/animati...on/ greater.html

Together we can and must stop the far right’s takeover of the Supreme Court!

Go Molly Go

Molly is kicking ass and taking names. She speaks my mind completely. I've got a pledge invoice from Hillary's campaign on my desk right now which I am sending back with a polite note that will basically say what Molly's post does.

I must have been Gore's speech that crystalized my conviction about the need for leadership on our side of the river. I want mean, and I want "take no prisoners" and I definitely don't want Rethug light.

Now I just have to convince Gore and Edwards to run again.