Heads up - Dems on C-Span NOW about spying abuses and Alito

[welshTerrier2]

call me a naive optimist but i think the Dems are laying the groundwork for a filibuster ...

the following quotes are "as close as i could capture them" ...

Reid: "no one is above the law"

Leahy: "bush promised to be a uniter and not a divider" ... "there were a number of people bush could have nominated that would have gotten 99 or 100 votes" ... i asked Alito: "to what extent would he be a brake on executive power ... Alito wrote the memo on unitary executive power" ... "nothing tells me that the Supreme Court would serve as a check and balance under Alito"

Kennedy: "the role of executive power is an issue of enormous significance to all Americans ... i do not believe Alito would stand up on that issue"

Durbin: "what will Alito do on protecting our rights and freedoms and what will he do when the president reaches into our personal lives ... Alito did not give me confidence that he would protect those rights ..."

Stabenow: "Alito supported "gestapo like tactics" (words from a dissenting judge) by Federal marshals during an unrestricted civil infraction" ... he has been tipping the scales of justice against the little guy for more than 15 years"

Schumer: "Alito's views are way out of the mainstream" ... "his fellow judges repeated and regularly criticized him when he was on the Third Circuit" ... "if most Americans knew his views, they would be overwhelmingly against his nomination" ... "somehow the ship he steers always ends up on the far right side"

Q&A:

Reid: "i will not rule a filibuster in or out"

Leahy: "they only talked about the torture memo when it came out in the press ... then they gave the IWR as a rationale and that's not right"

Reid: "had they not gone forward with this illegal program, the terrorists wouldn't know we were doing the spying ... they could have used the FISA court ... instead, their illegal actions resulted in disclosure"

Reid: "This president is not King George - he's president George"

Kennedy: "it's not the Dems who said bush violated the law; it's the non-partisan Congressional Research Service ... the telephone companies have a lot to answer for" ...

[ulysses]

1. you're a naive optimist.

;-) I think you may be right, though.

[welshTerrier2]

2. heh heh ...

yeah, i am ... not sure i could get out of bed in the morning if i weren't ...

[jenmito]

3. Reid just said he hasn't ruled out a filibuster! n/t

[EVDebs]

4. Alito, and frankly Roberts for that matter, during Reagan's admin

Both men were either in DOJ or w/in the admin rubberstamping plans and executive orders making the 'suspension of the Constitution' a fait accompli: read Ollie North's infamous Rex84 plan, the Operations Garden Plot and Cable Splicer, to be used to detain dissenters during unpopular wars...

The executive orders are all just waiting for presidential signatures...And Alito and Roberts will both rubberstamp the 'suspension of the Constitution'. Unbelievable, but true.

[welshTerrier2]

6. the Dems have no choice but to filibuster

anything else is playing Russian roulette with the Constitution ... there's no room for politics on this ...

[welshTerrier2]

5. press conference over ...

i've edited the OP to include most of the statements made ...

[EVDebs]

7. Please remind Dems the next time they pass a War authorization...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2382761&mesg_id=2388481

to NOT include the unconstitutional language Bush has been exploiting

"...as he (the President) determines..."

This is already unconstitutional and an abdication of Congressional authority to determine the "clear" "circumstances" and "situations" that allow for the authorization for use of military force, as mentioned in the War Powers Act of 1973.

Congress has allowed resolutions to end-run Congress's war making powers, thus enabling a war-addicted President to do as he pleases. He is now making a shambles of the Constitution's fourth and first amendments in the Bill of Rights. Due process is a joke; free speech and privacy rights a thing of the past.

[welshTerrier2]

8. the IWR was an abomination

you said it exactly right: it was "an abdication of Congressional authority" ...

those who voted for it did so for many different reasons ... their short-sightedness defies comprehension ... in the end of ends, no matter what justification or defense is employed, Congress empowered a power-hungry madman ... whether it was their intent to do so or not, and whether bush abused the core language of the IWR or not (and he did), Congressional support for the IWR made it much easier for bush to carry out his illegal assault on Iraq and his illegal assault on our Constitutional liberties ...

[EVDebs]

9. Congress created this monster...Congress must defang it....n/t