Filiblog and Filibusters

BLAAAATTTTTT!!!!!
Europe is behaving like congressional Dems when facing a BushCo appointee. Shrub seems able to put whoever he wants anywhere he wants...
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The US deputy defence secretary's nomination stirred controversy, given his key role in the Iraq war and lack of development experience.

But after a meeting on Wednesday in Brussels, European leaders said they expected approval of his nomination.

Europe is hoping to secure one of the two vacant vice-presidential posts.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker repeatedly referred to Mr Wolfowitz as "the incoming president of the World Bank" after the meeting he had arranged to address concerns. . .
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Wolfowitz wins European backing
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4393025.stm

aaaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhh.

So sorry, Europe.

John Kerry: Bush's Budget Assaults Our Values
30 March 2005

There’s been some big changes on John Kerry’s Senate website, as pointed out in the comments of the thread below.

In the Press Office section of the new and improved website, are recent press releases reflecting on how Bush’s budget affects five different areas of Massachusetts, Worcester, Lowell, Springfield, the Berkshires, and Lawrence. Here’s some quips from one…

"When considering the budget of the United States, honesty at minimum means actually counting every dollar we plan to spend. It sounds simple -- it's what every American does -- but this budget doesn't do it."

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=647

AWESOME Suz,

You bring a picture to life for people. PIRATES, the bad guys who want it all and will stop at nothing to have all the treasure.

The filibuster is a treasure that we cannot have taken from ALL of us. It is woth fighting for, and must be protected.

I spent the day today on filablogging.

It would be horrible to lose the filabuster, and have nothing left but to filablog. There should be no need for a filablog. We have been given a list of senators to target. How sad that we have to filablog them to save the honorable and necessary filabuster.

I guess I should tell you who the target senators are. But, by all means write and call senators who aren't on the list too!!

The 24 target senators.......

Sen. Richard Shelby (Alabama)
Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
Sen. John McCain (Arizona)
Sen. Richard Lugar (Indiana)
Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa)
Sen. Pat Roberts (Kansas)
Sen. Jim Bunning (Kentucky)
Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY)
Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine)
Sen. Susan Collins (Maine)
Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss)
Sen. Chuck Hagel (Nebraska)
Sen. John Sununu (NH)
Sen. Judd Gregg (NH)
Sen. Pete Domenici (NM)
Sen. Mike DeWine (Ohio)
Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio)
Sen. Gordon Smith (Oregon)
Sen. Arlen Specter (Penn)
Sen. Lincoln Chafee (RI)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC)
Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN)
Sen. John Warner (Virginia)

Tom DeLay compares himself to Jesus:

http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/000138.htm

The Texas Observer has just published what will stand as the definitive article on the Texas 2002 election scandal.

Featuring screen shots of multiple emails, brochures, checks, and memos written by staffers and consultants for the Texans for a Republican Majority PAC, the article makes a damning case that TRMPAC violated Texas election law in 2002. The evidence presented in the article also closely ties House GOP Majority Leader Tom DeLay to the scandal.

Maloney also relates in his e-mails that he will be delivering "2 checks from Reliant" to "TD" (Tom DeLay). The circumstances under which DeLay sealed the Reliant deal earned him a rebuke from the U.S. House ethics committee in 2004. In early June 2002, DeLay held a two-day golf tournament at the Homestead resort in Hot Springs, Virginia. The cost of attending the event was a corporate contribution of $25,000 to $50,000. Five energy companies were invited by Maloney to attend: El Paso Corp., Mirant, Reliant Energy, Westar Energy, and Williams Companies. (DeLay's dealings with Westar would earn a separate rebuke from the committee.) The golfing took place just before a House-Senate conference on an omnibus energy bill. (It's understandable why, four months later, Maloney would complain about Reliant's tardiness.) The Homestead event was supposed to benefit equally TRMPAC and DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC), according to an e-mail from an ARMPAC staffer to TRMPAC's accountant.

The Majority Leader has insisted that there was no relationship between the solicited money and any actions to influence the legislative process in Congress. Furthermore, DeLay has claimedÑwhile lashing out at Travis County District Attorney Ronnie EarleÑthat he had no more than an advisory role in TRMPAC. Still, it's not hard to see why the Williams Company might be confused about where to send the check and who was in charge.

We're proud to share the Observer's top-notch reporting with our membership. Please click here to read the full story: http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle_new.asp?ArticleID=10

Tutterfly,

Yes, I spent the day calling and faxing too. My biggest concern is to spread the word to everybody, to fight against the theft of democracy.

We must continue to write, call, and fax because this is one issue that will not allow us to just cross our fingers and hope for the best.

I will post my letters tomorrow.

My good friend and I have decided to devote the whole day tomorrow to making phone calls and writing LTEs. We've both already participated in Operation Democracy and have made more calls to media. But we both feel that this is so important, we'll devote a day to it. So no gym, no shopping, no library, no making art, no gardening. We're setting up at the local cyber coffee shop with our laptops, cell phones and a bag lunch (we're both on Atkins)and we're phoning. All day, until we've each hit every senator, every media outlet, every local paper.

Everything is more fun with a buddy.

Tutterfly, you're my inspiration. I sent your letters from last thread around as samples to my group. Thanks so much for all your energy. People like you make all the difference in a group.

I'm doing as much as I can but working 12 hours at a time. Tomorrow I'm taking a vacation day & going to a luncheon with 6 female US Senators & then Town Hall afterward (about Social Security).
I will see a bunch of Dems though - a lot! So I'll take example letters & tell them about the project & have already sent out alot of group emails. Good luck, you guys!

from article on "the court case" - Right on!

"The judge went on to deliver a scathing attack on politicians who got involved in the case, saying the White House and lawmakers ``have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for the governance of a free people - our Constitution.''

______________

Our current government has shown again and again that they think they are above the law - they hate trial lawyers (who protect people from corporate damage), they don't like the World Court or the Geneva Convention & violate human rights while pretending the moral high ground.

This is a little bit of justice today.

Why hasn't the "Culture of Life" done something about this situation?

"The death toll in Darfur has been underestimated and is likely to be near 300,000, British lawmakers said Wednesday, calling the international response to the human tragedy ``scandalously ineffective.''

... Laura Bush goes to Afghanistan to champion women's rights - Karen Hughes must be behind this PR stunt. Only progressive women have ever cared about Afghan women, such as RAWA. This is only happening because her popularity rating is slightly better than her husbands.

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=NW_1-T&oldflok=FF-APO-PLS&idq=/ff/story/0001/20050330/2358492176.htm&ewp=ewp_news_0305terri

High Court Rejects New Schiavo Request

By MITCH STACY
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case for the sixth time late Wednesday, taking less than two hours to reject her parents' request that the feeding tube for their brain-damaged daughter be reinserted.

The one-sentence ruling came hours after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals resoundingly declined to intervene in the case. Justices did not explain their decision and there was no indication how they voted.

'Mr. Smith' Joins Filibuster Fray
31 March 2005

MSNBC is reporting that People for the American Way, (PFAW) founded by Hollywood producer Norman Lear, has launched a television ad campaign that features a scene from the classic 1939 movie, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” In the scene, freshman Senator Jefferson Smith, played by Jimmy Stewart, filibusters on the Senate floor to block a corrupt pork-barrel project.

“Wild horses aren’t going to drag me off this floor until those people have heard everything I’ve got to say,” declares Stewart.

PFAW’s ad campaign is aimed at seven Republican senators in a bid to preserve the Democrats’ ability to filibuster Bush nominees. Altogether PFAW plans to spend $5 million on TV ads and other advocacy on the issue.

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=648

Sorry about Wolfowitz, but you have to keep in mind that we are undergoing huge turmoil in Europe about the European Constitution that will sceal our future.
In France, it's pure mess between the NO and YES voters. The "noers" might stop all the process because the treaty has to be accepted in the 25 countries. Still 2 months of tough campaign ahead, so Wolfowitz (whose name many people don't even know) in the middle of that, appointed to an international institution located in US....seems very far to them.
We are trying to deal with our own mess, because if the Constitution does not pass, everything will be opened to Bush and his policies.
What is the worse?

Ok, so maybe it's not JUST America that has completely lost it's mind...

Wolfowitz set for World Bank nod
Thursday, March 31, 2005

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The World Bank board is expected to approve Paul Wolfowitz as its leader one day after the deputy defense secretary received the support of the European Union.

Wolfowitz met with EU officials Wednesday in Brussels, where they decided to back him as president despite reservations about the unillaterist goals they associate with the White House.

"There are no objections of EU countries" to Wolfowitz, Belgian Development Aid minister Armand De Decker told The Associated Press after the meeting.

In an unusual move, EU officials had asked one of the Bush administration's most hawkish figures to come to Europe to deliver his views on development issues after his nomination sparked controversy around the world's capitals.

Many leaders said they had trouble reconciling Wolfowitz's role in the Iraq war with the needs of the developing world, and described him as having a reputation for unilateralism and lack of development experience.

They also questioned his credentials and management style.

But after hearing him speak, European Commissioner Olli Rehn said he "was satisfied with everything he heard from Mr Wolfowitz concerning free trade and also on poverty reduction and development policy," a Commission spokeswoman told a news conference.

The 184-nation World Bank board is due to choose a successor to veteran president James Wolfensohn on Thursday in Washington, after U.S. President George W. Bush nominated him for the top post.

The 61-year-old Wolfowitz, who was the main architect of the war in Iraq, was keen to appease the EU after meeting with development and finance ministers in Brussels.

Read more... http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/03/31/worldbank.wolfowitz/index.html

Not as awesome as Tutterfly's letter, but we each bring something special when we speak from our heart.

My letter to Senator Frist:

Dear Senator Frist,

I am deeply concerned you are going to use what has been coined, "The Nuclear Option" and I strongly urge you to put this notion aside before you trample away our democracy. For centuries, our democracy was founded on hearing all voices--majority and the minority. We all voted and deserve to have our voices heard.

I equate it to two kids fighting on a playground. As a former teacher and a parent, I know there is always more than one side of the story, and often there is truth to both sides. However, when one side refuses to let the other be heard, then that is the one who usually has the greater fear of the truth coming out.

Since the Senate is responsible for voting on Judicial nominees and these men or women have lifetime appointments, then it is even more important that the truth be spoken, argued, debated until "We the People" are satisfied that democracy has been served.

Please, for the sake of democracy, put that notion aside and show us instead how Republicans and Democrats can function together without the majority bullying the minority.

Sincerely,

Posted by: DiAnne at March 31, 2005 12:32 AM

Dianne-

Because they're not the culture of life. They're the culture of pretenders.

WE are the culture of life, but I highly suggest we all STOP using their frame before we help them dig our own hole.

They are the culture of pretenders and we are the truthspeakers. We care about the quality of life and we care about improving life.

They are the culture of death,of wars, of slow starvation as the standard of living, of homelessness, and of poverty. S0 I beg all of us to refrain from using their frame!

Bush panel rips U.S. intelligence abilities
'Dead wrong' on Iraq; little known about Iran, North Korea

BREAKING NEWS
NBC News and news services
Updated: 8:14 a.m. ET March 31, 2005

WASHINGTON - In a scathing report released Thursday, President Bush’s commission on weapons of mass destruction found that America’s spy agencies were “dead wrong” in most of their judgments about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

The commission was also highly critical of U.S. abilities to infiltrate Iran and North Korea, considered two leading threats today, stating that the United States knows “disturbingly little” about their weapons programs.

The commission called for dramatic change to prevent future failures. It outlined more than 70 recommendations, saying that President Bush must give John Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence, broader powers for overseeing the nation’s 15 spy agencies.

It also called for sweeping changes at the FBI to combine the bureau’s counterterrorism and counterintelligence resources into a new office.

Problems with 'Curve Ball'
The proposals were prompted in part by an Iraqi defector code-named “Curve Ball” who may have had a drinking problem and who provided suspect information on Saddam’s purported mobile weapons labs, officials said. The defector and the questions about his veracity have been described in recent government reports.

The information the defector provided was included in the much-maligned October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, a high-level collection of intelligence that the White House used to argue for invading Iraq. That document said Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, but no such weapons have been found.

The commission's report will single out that document, which said there was “compelling evidence” that Iraq sought uranium for nuclear weapons.

The document included dissent in the form of cautionary footnotes from the State Department’s intelligence bureau, the Energy Department and the Air Force.

But a senior administration official acknowledged in July 2003 that Bush and then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice did not read footnotes in the 90-page document.

By glossing over or omitting dissenting views about Iraq’s weapons programs, the estimate overstated the accuracy of U.S. intelligence, according to an official who described the commission’s report.

“There’s a need for more complete reporting,” the official said.

Read more... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7331220/

8:33

Thank you, there is a God, and maybe not Bush's. On notice that he doesn't know enough about Iran to push for war.

Wish just one person would say since the Clarke episode and 9/11 hearings how much pushing was done to the intelliegence agencies to claim wrong, by the secret Pentagon, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Feith and others.

Not enough for Powell to say Cheney didn't believe diplomacy would work to rid us of Saddam, at what then became illegal and unnecessarily lethal means.

Watch the neocon get creamed:

http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2005/03/821394.shtml

Sparrow

You're right - when I use the "frames" of the opposition I'm using them ironically & sarcastically, an old habit from feminism & gay rights where people reclaim labels etc.

If I were being accurate to my perception, I would call them the "culture of death," I think. The emotional component doesn't come over the internet well in words - if I say "compassionate conservative" you can't see the sneer on my face & that I'm rolling my eyes, that I consider it an oxymoron.

Benson on the culture o flife..

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/benson/

From the Appeals Court judge appointed by Bush 1 on just how far outside the line the executive and congressional branches lunged when they got involved in the Schiavo case.

NPR this morning called his opinion "scathing".

from Salon.com

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/03/31/birch/index.html

"Demonstrably at odds" with "our Constitution"

Judge Stanley Birch is no liberal.

By his own reckoning, Birch became active in the Republican Party in Georgia back when "there were few in Georgia who would admit to being a Republican." In 1980, he helped run a campaign for Mack Mattingly, who would become the first Georgia Republican elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction. In 1990, Birch was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit by President George H.W. Bush. In 2000, he came down on the side of George W. Bush in litigation over the recount in Florida. In 2004, Birch dismissed much of Justice Anthony Kennedy's decision in Lawrence v. Texas as non-binding dicta on the way to deciding that the state of Alabama can outlaw the sale of sex toys, and he refused to strike down a Florida law that prohibits gay couples from adopting children.

But even for a judge like Stanley Birch, the Republicans in Congress and the Republican in the White House have gone too far. Joining a majority of his 11th Circuit colleagues yesterday in rejecting the latest appeal from Terri Schiavo's parents -- the Supreme Court rejected the same appeal late last night -- Birch wrote a separate opinion defending judges from charges of "judicial activism" and complaining that Tom DeLay, Bill Frist and George W. Bush have trampled on the U.S. Constitution in their rush to "save" Terri Schiavo.

"A popular epithet directed by some members of society, including some members of Congress, toward the judiciary involves the denunciation of 'activist judges,'" Birch wrote. "Generally, the definition of an 'activist judge' is one who decides the outcome of a controversy before him according to personal conviction, even one sincerely held, as opposed to the dictates of the law as constrained by legal precedent and, ultimately, our Constitution. In resolving the Schiavo controversy, it is my judgment that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for the governance of a free people -- our Constitution."

While other judges have been content to assume the constitutionality of the emergency legislation enacted by Congress on behalf of Schiavo's parents while rejecting their appeals on other grounds, Birch said that it was time to cease indulging in that assumption. While Congress and the president might have had the constitutional authority to confer jurisdiction over the Schiavo matter on the federal courts, Birch said that they lacked the authority to dictate the way in which the courts exercised that jurisdiction. As Birch explained, the emergency legislation purported to tell the courts that they must apply a "de novo" standard of review to the case; that they could not consider whether Schiavo's parents claims were previously adjudicated in state courts; that they could not abstain from hearing the case on the grounds that proceedings were already under way in state courts; and that they could not decline the case on the grounds that remedies in state courts had not yet been exhausted. "Because these provisions constitute legislative dictation of how a federal court should exercise its judicial functions," Birch wrote, the Schiavo legislation "invades the province of the judiciary and violates the separation of powers principle."

Birch said that, "when the fervor of political passions moves the executive and legislative branches to act in ways inimical to basic constitutional principles, it is the duty of the judiciary to intervene. If sacrifices to the independence of the judiciary are permitted today, precedent is established for the constitutional transgressions of tomorrow. Accordingly, we must conscientiously guard the independence of our judiciary and safeguard the Constitution, even in the face of the unfathomable human tragedy that has befallen Mrs. Schiavo and her family and the recent events related to her plight which have troubled the consciences of many. Realizing this duty, I conclude that the [Schiavo legislation] is an unconstitutional infringement on core tenets underlying our constitutional system."

Birch said that the Florida legislature or Congress might re-write the laws governing end of life decisions, but that -- failing to do so -- they could not mandate that the courts change existing laws through judicial fiat. "Were the courts to change the law, as the petitioners and Congress invite us to do, an 'activist judge' criticism would be valid."

-- Tim Grieve

[08:12 EST, March 31, 2005]

This is a very interesting strategy of tying Rape information and choice. Let Republicans say they support rapist and want to punish rape victims. Just let them.

"DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- Colorado Gov. Bill Owens could face a tough choice deciding whether to sign a bill requiring hospitals to tell rape victims about emergency contraception"

Senator Linclon Chafee is the swing vote on this nomination. His office should be contacted with the message that if he expects moderate Dems in Rhode Island to continue to cross over and get him elected he should reject the Bolton nomination.

"The Los Angeles Times' Paul Richter says the Senate may be one vote away from rejecting the nomination of John Bolton to be the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. All of the Committee's Democrats intend to oppose Bolton and lukewarm Boltonites such as chair Richard Lugar (R-IN), Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and moderate Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) as seen as the top picks for a potential defector. (But really only Chafee; and watch Feingold too, flipping the other way, the story says.) But, whether the President gets his pick or not, sparks are set to fly when the Senate returns.

Mailing Address:
Chafee for Senate
PO Box 7329
Warwick, Rhode Island 02887

Telephone & Fax Information:
Phone (401) 921-1920
Fax (401) 921-1980

Email Addresses:
senatorchafee@chafeeforsenate.com
treasurer@chafeeforsenate.com
webmaster@chafeeforsenate.com
press@chafeeforsenate.com

Delay is desperate.
He has released a Broadside against the seperation of powers in the Constitution. Delay has publicaly stated he will investigate the courts that refused to consider the Schiavo case.

This is a Direct assault on the Foundation of this Nation, and an attempt to overturn more than 200 years of Laws that maintained balance in our Government.

This is not a nation geared to benifit one man, so he can cut political deals to stave off investigation of his wrongdoings.

Of the people, by the People, for the People. But the People must rise to the challenge. The Constitution recognizes and enumerates our Rights. It is up to us to Force Congress to Obey them.

We have faxes, Internet, Email, Telephones, and organization like the DCP. We must take our Nation back from people holding our Constitution Hostage.

Tom must go, no more Delay.