We Ignore Bush's Supreme Court Nominee At Our Peril

[Placebo]

It is tempting to want to shut ourselves off from this decision and the news surrounding it and focus entirely on Plame, because it does deserve more attention than it's getting, but dare I say it:

The Supreme Court is more important.

We're talking about someone who will be at least part of if not the deciding vote on cases and issues effecting the lives of all Americans for decades to come.

Plamegate will take care of itself. And we can focus on both at the same time.

But we must not give in to short-sighted political passions while the future slips away in the background.

[kid a]

1. We can ignore the announcement

But not the reaction of our elected democrats' responses.

They must fight for us! and Hear from us!

[peacetalksforall]

2. Tell Biden, Leiberman, Landrieau, the Nelsons, and all the others. nt

[Donailin]

3. Unless

He picks someone totally moderate to stave off the ever increasing criticisms of his ethics. He may throw a bone to get his poll numbers up. Remember, the radical right is only 25 percent of his base, not the whole fifty as they would have us believe. Yesterdays polls show that.

What would Karl Rove do? That's how we must look at this, everything is political and don't think for a moment that 2006 aint on his mind.

If I were him and I wanted the heat off me, I's appease in a passive agressive way and nominate someone that the dems will embrace.

[DanCa]

4. I have absolutely no faith in him to do that.

If he does I ll take back twenty five percent of the things id ever said about him. The rest when this war is over.

[Donailin]

6. Every thing is political with them though. He's in a atight spot.

Appease the 5adical right(25%), or appease the majority of voters(75%). 2006 has everything to do with this appointment. Keep that in mind.

[Placebo]

9. Well I guess we know what kind of choice he made!

Don't we.

[DistressedAmerican]

5. I Have Attention For Both Issues Thanks.

This is not an either or situation.

Why the hell does everyone act like we can't hold two news stories in our heads on the same day (not you per se)? I have been hearing it all day. It is just the way they want us thinking.

If you run from story to story, you are bound to lose. We must keep pressure on consistently to kick the shit out of these creeps.

If we choose to refocus all of our attention on the nomination OR Rove, we lose. They are vulnerable on many fronts right now. We must attend to all of them

[nicknameless]

7. Uh-oh. Not “Blazing Saddles?”

I turned on the TV, saw an amazing lineup of murderous thugs and thought, “Yippee! Time to pop some corn and settle down for some delicious laughs over Blazing Saddles.”

Then my heart sank, as I realized that I was just looking at a bunch of Bush nominees.

[Peace Patriot]

8. I agree with you that the Supreme Court is extremely important, but

I don't see a bloody thing we can do about. What we are looking at is a fascist coup--a government with no legitimacy, a government that does not have "consent of the governed," and that very clearly does not represent the majority of the people.

I think we should concentrate on Bush/Cheney treason and election reform. Unless we can get back our right to vote--by evicting Bushite voting machine companies and their secret, proprietary programming code, or at least getting some transparency and verifiability in our elections (paper ballot backup, strict auditing and security, and no secret programming code)--there is little we can do. Bush is not beholden to the people. He has no reason to be. He can do anything his rightwing handlers want him to do, and that is just how he is behaving, as if public opinion matters not at all.

The courts are going to be very, very bad for a very, very long time. We must devise a different strategy for protecting women's rights. I think the key to that is state/local election reform.

The only place where we can achieve election reform is in state/local jurisdictions, where the authority over election systems still resides, and where ordinary people still have some say. The bipartisan corruption in the electronic voting business at the state/local level is daunting, but it is nothing compared to the bipartisan corruption in Washington DC, and it is local and therefore much more fixable. See the DU Forum "2004 Election Results and Discussion" for information and action ideas:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203

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We have the torture memo writer Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General, the chief law enforcement officer in the U.S. The Democrats in Congress couldn't stop it. It is the most outrageous appointment I have ever heard of. Many in Congress are illegitimately elected Bush "pod people." They, too, have no allegiance to the people or to our country, and nothing to worry about. Their elections are taken care of.

So that's the situation. It is a coup, a junta. I think the Fitzgerald prosecution might alleviate it somewhat (might!), but the fundamental problem is that our election machinery is in private, rightwing hands, and is giving us false results. We must seize our last and only remaining opportunity to change this--at the state/local level.