Progressives Choking on Right-Wing Spin: Self-Heimlich Now!

[emlev]

Did you buy the right wing line that there's no way to stop the confirmation of Alito to the Supreme Court?

It's nuthin' but a fur ball of spin--cough it up now!

Momentum is building for a filibuster. The Democratic senators need to know that the country is behind them in order to take what they see as a political risk. THERE IS WORK TO DO AND IT MUST BE DONE NOW!

See this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x223842

Don't miss the tool kit Zan of Texas has posted (#8 on that thread).

Make calls. Send emails. Send faxes. Spread the word. Momentum is building for a filibuster! This is our moment!

[mom cat]

1. mom cat gices tihs post four paws and a tail. I know all about fur

balls, Get rid of them any way you can!

[Surya Gayatri]

2. K & R emlev

And I've posted this address over at my "Bernie Ward" thread. To quote the phrase they used to practice in typing class:

NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR COUNTRY!!!!

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[Wordie]

3. K&R ...and here is a list of FAX numbers for Senators.

FAX Numbers for the US Senate Democrats

AR: Lincoln(D) [phone]
AR: Pryor(D) [phone] (Note: I had problems with this number - will check and get back)
CA: Boxer(D) [phone]
CA: Feinstein(D) [phone]
CO: Salazar(D) [phone]
CT: Dodd(D) [phone]
CT: Lieberman(D) [phone]
DE: Biden(D) [phone]
DE: Carper(D) [phone]
FL: Nelson(D) [phone]
HI: Akaka(D) [phone]
HI: Inouye(D) [phone]
IA: Harkin(D) [phone]
IL: Durbin(D) [phone]
IL: Obama(D) [phone]
IN: Bayh(D) No FAX listed
LA: Landrieu(D) [phone]
MA: Kennedy(D) [phone]
MA: Kerry(D) [phone]
MD: Mikulski(D) [phone]
MD: Sarbanes(D) [phone]
MI: Levin(D) [phone]
MI: Stabenow(D) [phone]
MN: Dayton(D) [phone]
MT: Baucus(D) [phone]
ND: Conrad(D) [phone]
ND: Dorgan(D) [phone]
NE: Nelson(D) [phone]
NJ: Corzine(D) [phone]
NJ: Lautenberg(D) [phone]
NM: Bingaman(D) [phone]
NV: Reid(D) [phone]
NY: Clinton(D) [phone]
NY: Schumer(D) [phone]
OR: Wyden(D) [phone]
RI: Reed(D) [phone]
SD: Johnson(D) [phone]
VT: Leahy(D) [phone]
VT: Jeffords(I) No FAX listed
WA: Cantwell(D) [phone]
WA: Murray(D) [phone]
WI: Feingold(D) [phone]
WI: Kohl(D) [phone]
WV: Rockefeller(D) [phone]
WV: Byrd(D) [phone] (Note: I had problems with this number - will check and get back)

FAX Numbers for the US Senate Republicans

AK: Murkowski(R) [phone]
AK: Stevens(R) [phone]
AL: Sessions(R) [phone]
AL: Shelby(R) [phone]
AZ: McCain(R) [phone]
AZ: Kyl(R) [phone]
CO: Allard(R) [phone]
FL: Martinez(R) [phone]
GA: Chambliss(R) [phone]
GA: Isakson(R) [phone]
IA: Grassley(R) [phone]
ID: Craig(R) [phone]
ID: Crapo(R) [phone] (Boise)
IN: Lugar(R) [phone]
KS: Brownback(R) [phone]
KS: Roberts(R) [phone]
KY: Bunning(R) [phone]
KY: McConnell(R) [phone]
LA: Vitter(R) [phone]
ME: Collins(R) [phone]
ME: Snowe(R) [phone]
MN: Coleman(R) [phone]
MO: Bond(R) [phone]
MO: Talent(R) [phone]
MS: Cochran(R) [phone]
MS: Lott(R) [phone]
MT: Burns(R) [phone]
NC: Burr(R) [phone]
NC: Dole(R) [phone]
NE: Hagel(R) [phone]
NH: Gregg(R) [phone]
NH: Sununu(R) [phone]
NM: Domenici(R) [phone]
NV: Ensign(R) [phone]
OH: Dewine(R) [phone]
OH: Voinovich(R) [phone]
OK: Coburn(R) [phone]
OK: Inhofe(R) [phone]
OR: Smith(R) [phone]
PA: Santorum(R) [phone]
PA: Specter(R) [phone]
RI: Chafee(R) [phone]
SC: DeMint(R) [phone]
SC: Graham(R) No FAX listed
SD: Thune(R) [phone]
TN: Alexander(R) [phone]
TN: Frist(R) [phone]
TX: Cornyn(R) [phone]
TX: Hutchison(R) [phone]
UT: Bennett(R) [phone]
UT: Hatch(R) [phone]
VA: Allen(R) [phone]
VA: Warner(R) [phone]
WY: Enzi(R) [phone]
WY: Thomas(R) [phone]

[mod mom]

6. Thanks!

[emlev]

4. kick

[Zan_of_Texas]

5. Give Landrieu special attention! All her numbers

Here's one of the CRUCIAL EIGHT.

FOCUS ON MARY LANDRIEU to defeat Alito.

Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) is speaking publicly against a filibuster of the Alito nomination for Supreme Court.
She says there is more important business the Senate needs to get on with. !!!!!

Ted Kennedy said yesterday during Alito Senate debate: "The stakes could not be higher. This is the vote of a generation."

Rainbow Push writes re Alito: "50 years of civil, human and women's rights advances are at stake - from Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. "

If confirmed, Alito at age 55 could serve out his life expectancy on the court -- 28 years -- in other words, the next SEVEN CONSECUTIVE PRESIDENTIAL TERMS.

Vote is in the next few days.

Landrieu is one of eight Democratic Senators needed to stop Alito.

PLEASE CALL OR FAX HER OFFICES.

PLEASE -- EVERYONE CONTACT HER. IF YOU KNOW LOUISIANA RESIDENTS, INCLUDING EVACUEES LIVING ELSEWHERE -- SPREAD THIS TO THEM TOO. HELP THE NATION!!!

Senator Mary Landrieu (D)
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

You can just say YOU MUST FILIBUSTER. Or, if you want to try to be persuasive, ask to speak to Kevin Avery at [phone]. He is her DC staff person who is in charge of judiciary issues.

Want to fax through a form?
Go to People for the American Way and their Save the Court.org site -- there's a fax option from there: http://www.savethecourt.org/site/c.mwK0JbNTJrF/b.849267/k.CC39/Home.htm


If you want to call their offices in Louisiana:

New Orleans zip code 70130
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Baton Rouge
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Shreveport
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Lake Charles
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Here are some of the groups that have opposed Alito’s nomination thus far:
http://www.nominationwatch.org/2005/12/momentum_agains


Want ammo?

(1)
Alito: What's At Stake
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002314.htm
Includes this:
"After a careful study, University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein described Alito's record of appeals court dissents as 'stunning. Ninety-one percent of Alito's dissents take positions more conservative than his colleagues...including colleagues appointed by Presidents Bush and Reagan.'" -- "The Case Against Alito," The Nation, editorial | posted January 5, 2006, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060123/editors


(2)
Why the Senate should not confirm Alito;
Supreme Court doesn't need a justice who has no interest in restraining `presidential powers'
by Geoffrey R. Stone, January 24, 2006, Chicago Tribune,
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0601240222jan24,1,7806633.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

(3)
Judge Alito's Radical Views
NEW YORK TIMES
Editorial
January 23, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/opinion/23mon1.html

(4)
Today's NEW YORK TIMES editorial

Editorial
Senators in Need of a Spine

NEW YORK TIMES
January 26, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/opinion/26thur1.html?_r=1&oref=login

Judge Samuel Alito Jr., whose entire history suggests that he holds extreme views about the expansive powers of the presidency and the limited role of Congress, will almost certainly be a Supreme Court justice soon. His elevation will come courtesy of a president whose grandiose vision of his own powers threatens to undermine the nation's basic philosophy of government — and a Senate that seems eager to cooperate by rolling over and playing dead. It is hard to imagine a moment when it would be more appropriate for senators to fight for a principle. Even a losing battle would draw the public's attention to the import of this nomination.

...

The Alito nomination has been discussed largely in the context of his opposition to abortion rights, and if the hearings provided any serious insight at all into the nominee's intentions, it was that he has never changed his early convictions on that point. The judge — who long maintained that Roe v. Wade should be overturned — ignored all the efforts by the Judiciary Committee's chairman, Arlen Specter, to get him to provide some cover for pro-choice senators who wanted to support the nomination. As it stands, it is indefensible for Mr. Specter or any other senator who has promised constituents to protect a woman's right to an abortion to turn around and hand Judge Alito a potent vote to undermine or even end it.

But portraying the Alito nomination as just another volley in the culture wars vastly underestimates its significance. The judge's record strongly suggests that he is an eager lieutenant in the ranks of the conservative theorists who ignore our system of checks and balances, elevating the presidency over everything else. He has expressed little enthusiasm for restrictions on presidential power and has espoused the peculiar argument that a president's intent in signing a bill is just as important as the intent of Congress in writing it. This would be worrisome at any time, but it takes on far more significance now, when the Bush administration seems determined to use the cover of the "war on terror" and presidential privilege to ignore every restraint, from the Constitution to Congressional demands for information.

...

A filibuster is a radical tool. It's easy to see why Democrats are frightened of it. But from our perspective, there are some things far more frightening. One of them is Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court.