Bob,

I have been taking the fight to Alito since 11:00am this morning and its now 12:51am the next morning!

My wife and I have made dozens of calls and sent many faxes demanding Alito be stopped and that dems step-up and filibuster Alito!

Read my fax, sent directly to Harry Reid's D.C. office here:

http://www.democrats.com/node/7530

In Solidarity,
-Frank Ranelli

"The first casualty when war comes is truth."

why focus on a divisive push button issue like roe vs wade? the issue is unlimited presidential power and both blues and reds can agree on that. And forget about calling Bush "the chimp"...chimps are cute and lovable critters. We've got Mad Dog Bush, playing out his schoolyard bully fantasies in real time, with real people dying, being bombed and tortured at the behest of this paranoid megalomaniac.
1 : a mania for great or grandiose performance
2 : a delusional mental disorder that is marked by infantile feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur

Why has no one asked this: how many terrorist sympathizers are there to spy on here...tens?...hundreds?...thousands? there's no need to spy because there shouldn't be any terrorist sympathizers left to spy on here!!!! arrest them or deport them. stop sneaking around reading their e mails and listening to them call out for pizza. does anybody think they are dumb enough to send messages on their personal computer or talk freely on the phone?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/opinion/26thur1.html

Senators in Need of a Spine
Published: January 26, 2006

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.

[Snip]

Senate Democrats, who presented a united front against the nomination of Judge Alito in the Judiciary Committee, seem unwilling to risk the public criticism that might come with a filibuster — particularly since there is very little chance it would work. Judge Alito's supporters would almost certainly be able to muster the 60 senators necessary to put the nomination to a final vote.

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.

sorry to disappoint you, but i really don't fit your conservative republican label, or any label for that matter, but that's for another time.

the repug strategy of persuading people to vote against their own self interest seems to have infected their own senators. alito believes in the enhancement of the executive and the denigration of the legislative. the senate should be slapping mad dog bush down instead of installing someone who would expand his powers.

mr alito is also profoundly anti-people. he favors a dictatorial president with powers to trash a bedrock principle of family values: "a man's home is his castle". he consistently makes corporations ascendant over people. his views on the status of workers are radical and reactionary. he sees workers as mere plough horses in the corporate fields.

perhaps the senators are too busy stuffing their pockets with corporate largesse to see that they are voting themselves out of a meaningful job in voting for alito. i have faxed and e-mailed several of them with this message:

Roe vs Wade is not the issue.
We don't need a justice who believes in unlimited presidential power. We do need a Congress who will slap Bush down and defend the Constitution. If you don't do your job of preserving the system of co-equal branches of government, nobody will even notice when King George Bush decides to suspend or abolish the Congress. He's made fools of the Congress and the Judiciary and he means to make both irrelevant. Get some backbone.

the profile asked what my party affiliation was.

my point was that the focus on alito in most of the media was re roe vs wade and his attitude toward it. and senators fearful of backlash on the issue. that is a divisive issue. and IMHO, an off track issue/strategy which the repugs have used very successfully in the past to smokescreen the real issue; and here it was happening again.

the big issue, which thankfully, has swung into focus in the last couple of days as the reason alito shouldn't be approved, is unlimited presidential power. that is an issue that everyone, red and blue, can agree on and get behind.

i believe, perhaps naively, that all of us have more in common than differences and focusing on the areas of commonality is the best way to erase the divide which was created and exploited by the repugs to all our detriment. one way is free and open dialogue. so many issues seem to be presented in a way designed to generate discord.

"As far as your obsession that Liberal Democrats spend all of their time "defending" RvW, again you haven't bothered to learn anything about us. This blog has an official policy about arguing RvW, and abortion in general -- it is not allowed. RvW is settled law, and that's the way we treat it. You are the one who seems focused on the issue, and not us."....huh???? yikes...think this proves my point that RvW is a knee jerk divisive issue :)

hello, where did that come from? ok, let me get this straight...citing RvW in any context is indicative of an obsession, arguing RvW or abortion????? saying that RvW is NOT relevant means i am focused on it.(?)

"...Republicans are tolerated as long as they are civil. Keep that in mind." i think i'll pass on the walking on eggshells bit...and the preaching...can get plenty of that elsewhere. interested in ideas and finding common ground, not hostility and being told what to think or say.