Be VERY AFRAID:
The Nation:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041025&s=pollitt<snip>By an amazing stroke of luck, there have been no vacancies on the Court in Bush's first term. Still, the current Court has been sitting for ten years, and the only Justice under 65 is Clarence Thomas. How much longer can God--who is obviously not a Republican--keep these spry oldsters going? Justice Stevens, the liberal stalwart, is 84! The next President will probably get one, two or even three nominations, and Bush has said he wants more Justices in the Scalia/Thomas mold. Depending on who leaves, the balance of forces may not change right away. But even if Bush merely trades a worn-out reactionary like the 80-year-old Rehnquist for a fresh young one, he's locking up a seat for the right wing on the nation's top Court--for what, the next thirty years? Don't rely on Senate Dems to hold out for a "moderate" appointment--especially if Bush plays the ethnic card and nominates a Hispanic. I can hear it now: How can we deny Torquemada the American dream?
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Right-wing legal activist Clint Bolick has said, "This election could be a twofer--we win the White House and the Supreme Court." Let's make it a twofer for civil liberties, civil rights--and counting every vote.
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David Soares is running for district attorney of Albany County, New York, on a platform of opposition to the ultra-severe Rockefeller Drug Laws (read Katrina vanden Heuvel's "Editor's Cut" about Soares). Having come from way behind to win the Democratic primary over the incumbent, Paul Clyne, a machine politician and strong supporter of those laws, Soares now faces two well-funded opponents: Clyne, now running with the Independence Party, and Roger Cusick, a Republican. Soares has the grassroots, the Working Families Party and reason on his side. But he desperately needs donations too. If he wins, we can start to turn around the vicious and failed "war on drugs," which has filled our prisons with nonviolent drug offenders. Send checks: Friends of David Soares, Box 301, Delmar, NY 12054.