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I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Glad I'm not watching, then...
Yoo-hoo?
"Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito."
Get used to the sound of that phrase.
Stop diluding yourselves that anything otherwise is going to become reality.
Echo?
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 - The Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. were supposed to be about the judge, but on Tuesday it sometimes seemed as though somebody forgot to tell the senators on the Judiciary Committee.
The lure of 50 cameras and the captive audience in the Senate Hart Office Building appeared too much of a temptation for some of Capitol Hill's windiest lions, who began by promising not to run a marathon session of questions, then did so anyway.
At one point Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, was even granted two extra minutes from the committee's chairman, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania - drawing groans from colleagues, among them Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York.
-New York Times
Yep, and when this country is a smouldering, balkanized ruin with corpses lying everywhere, these fuckers will be jumping up and down saying "We win! We win!".
we are all paying for not electing a democrat --the issue of the supreme court and what would happen if Bush got the appointments was well known...
I heard a woman from the Family Values Coalition say the Alito appointment was a sure thing and the hearings were just the act of desparate people...she is right about that...we are desparate to maintain a democracy and forward progress and we will not have that with the loaded court
I was writing up my own take on the hearings, and found something interesting in the transcript.
Alito tells Schumer he can't say whether the Constitution protects abortion rights because it involves "interpretation" of other language that isn't explicit (unlike freedom of speech). Schumer gets annoyed.
Then Cornyn comes along to try to bail Alito out, and ends up doing the opposite:
"CORNYN: And outside of let's say the Fourth Amendment, perhaps, does the right to privacy appear explicitly stated in the Constitution?
ALITO: There is no express reference to privacy in the Constitution. But it is protected by the Fourth Amendment and in certain circumstances by the First Amendment and in certain circumstances by the Fifth and the 14th Amendments.
CORNYN: And the reason it's protected is because the Supreme Court has so interpreted the Constitution. Isn't that correct, sir?
ALITO: That's correct. It's a question of interpretation rather than simply looking at what is in the text of the document. "
SO...right after Alito gets done telling Schumer he can't say whether the Constitution protects abortion rights because they're not explicit, and it requires interpretation, he comes right out and says that privacy rights -are protected-, even though they aren't explicitly mentioned, and require "interpreting" other, non-specific language.
Feh.
Stop diluding yourselves that anything otherwise is going to become reality.
Um ... OK?
.
Very frustrating
It'a all about highschool. The jocks versus the eggheads. Remember those insufferable class elections about nothing? Well now it matters but the players are basically the same. What shit.
ALITO: That's correct. It's a question of interpretation rather than simply looking at what is in the text of the document. "
Looks like "strict constructionism" just went the way of untelligent design.
.
I have several bobble heads on my dashboard. Timmeh is good the way it bounces around.
I have almost the complete Washington set.
-New York Times
$ | 01.11.06 - 9:55 am | #
Your "Liberal" media at work!
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Has a nice ring to it, eh? Kinda catchy. It's making an impression upon me.
Judge Alito Proves a Powerful Match for Senate Questioners," read the headline of a "news analysis" piece in Wednesday's New York Times.
The report described Alito as an "elusive target" for Senate Democrats who are determined to paint him as an extremist. "For nearly eight hours, Judge Alito was placid, monochromatic and, it seemed, mostly untouchable," the New York Times opined.
The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday compared Democrats on the Judiciary Committee to a "guerilla army searching for a weak point in a heavily guarded fortress...as they challenged Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. at his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing."
The L.A. Times described Alito as "contained and controlled...never seeming to anger and only rarely displaying flashes of humor," and the newspaper admitted, "He demonstrated an encyclopedic knowledge of the cases he had decided on the 3rd Circuit, fielding detailed questions on dozens of them without referring to notes."
The Associated Press reported that "Democrats appeared unable to stop the nomination, and seemed increasingly unlikely to mount a filibuster in the full Senate."
heard a woman from the Family Values Coalition say the Alito appointment was a sure thing and the hearings were just the act of desparate people.
Silly people, thinking there's anything to do but obey Dear Leader!
.
Stop diluding yourselves
I stopped doing that when I learned I could go blind.
As far as deluding myself about Alito, I'm coming to the sad conclusion that I shall never again sit on the high court. Nevertheless, you liberals should fight this guy if only for my benefit.
.
Unfortunately, King Chimpy the Worst has basically come out and said it doesn't matter. "Laws, shmaws. I'll do what the fuck I want. Piss off, ya whiny bastards, afore I have ya shot."
Sorry. That was way more articulate than Chimpy can manage.
I'm going to be the pisser in the cornflakes here and say it doesn't matter.
I mean it does matter, but there's not a damn thing we can do about it. The right wing will get their way, Alito will get his seat and this radical transformation of my country, this slow-motion coup, will roll on carrying all of us, bobbleheads included, into a very dark future.
Any hear about the Chinese looking into other investments besides US Treasury notes?
Yeah, it matters, but we're already toast.
Please, somebody tell me a joke.
"Please, somebody tell me a joke.
cosmic grappler "
Sam Alito, the Pope, and a gay cowboy walk into a bar....
They want to pretend that none of this will actually affect them. It's pure self-delusion.
This stuff doesn't affect the elite reporters and bloviators. They're rich. This is an intramural game played amongst their class. The impact of policy decisions is for the little people.
There is, nonetheless, something particularly disconcerting about the tendency of political reporters to write stories about the politics, rather than the substance, of an issue or an event, since so much of that has to do with media relations. They shamelessly write breathless dispatches about how the GOP uses them and abuses them to hold on to power. How is that all that different from Washingtonienne?
Of course it doesn't matter. But a blowjob, now *that's* something that could be life or death to the Republic.
As we see with most election coverage, issues aren't newsworthy.
The fight is.
It doesn't matter because nothing the government does will hurt them. They have arrived safely at insiderville, untouchable, ruling members of the plutocracy.
Court decisions don't matter. Policy doesn't matter. None of this stuff matters. It's just a game played between rival high school football teams and they're just happy to go to the homecoming dance.
I want someone to ask Norah Ho if she's ever had an abortion. On live television.
After all, the bobbleheads don't need the protection of law. That's for the little people. And Sammy Alito put aside the concerns of the little people in order to shin up the greasy pole.
What really matters today is the French response to the impending bird flu.
so when do you find out whether Alito is confirmed?
Gaaaah. Can't stomach any of this anymore. Maybe later. Have a good 'un, moonbats. Hugs all around.
"Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito."
Get used to the sound of that phrase.
Stop diluding yourselves that anything otherwise is going to become reality.
Orwell's Illegitimate Son
Christ, are you pessimistic!
Are you this way about everything?????????????
Completely unrelated, read the latest revelations in the case of the murdered NYT journalist in DC and try not to be completely sickened. Remember, these are Chimpy's first responders at work.
Listening to NPR this morning - apparently they are going to have an in depth look on their Here and Now program (maybe just the Boston station - hopefully not nationwide) on what it is like for Alito to sit for 9 1/2 hours in these hearings. From the sounds of it it really is about the actual sitting.. and listening and bathroom breaks or what ever your body goes through.
It's all about howya feel remember - not what you think or do or say - but howya feeeellll..
The Chinese don't want their dollar-denominated assets to fall too quickly.
Nice little wall you've got there...
How anyone could suggest Cornyn as a potential Justice defies belief. The man is a moron.
F
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i watched the proceedings on and off yesterday.
Hey, I wasn't at my best yesterday. Somebody hid the bottle I keep under my chair. Those bastards!
Our nation gets better information about the opposing sides in football games. It's taken more seriously, too.
heard a woman from the Family Values Coalition say the Alito appointment was a sure thing and the hearings were just the act of desparate people.
Pilotfish for the patriarchy.
I want to slap the shit out of wingnut females.
so when do you find out whether Alito is confirmed?
The committee will likely vote this week on whether to send the nomination to the full Senate. Frist wants the Senate vote by Jan 20th, but the Dems want a week longer.
Tough response may seem inevitable but could play into Tehran's hands
Simon Tisdall
Oooh a mine safety case
Watching the bobblehead coverage of the Alito hearings - and, frankly, just about everything else they cover - one comes away think that to them it just doesn't really matter.
It's like they're little kids watching an ant farm. What goes on will have no effect on them.
Hey, I wasn't at my best yesterday. Somebody hid the bottle I keep under my chair. Those bastards!
Ted Kennedy
Is that all you've got, asshole.
Immature moron!
Moonbootica,
When the Judiciary Committee is done with him, they'll make a recommendation to the full Senate, who then discuss and vote. If there's a filibuster, it would happen then. Maybe next week?
Again, for the filibuster: if not now, then when?
If the Dems don't stand up now, they should just pack up their offices and leave DC.
Too right, Atrios.
Or maybe a better reading is that they recognize that outcomes matter, but, quite reasonably none of them believe that Alito will be dangerous to 'people who matter.'
Why is Durbin the only one capable of asking questions that should be put to a Supreme Court candidate?
Before too long, if not already, the time for debate will be over.
It's they who're deluding themselves into thinking the're anything more than paid propagandists. Not that it would matter, they wouldn't understand.
If the Dems don't stand up now, they should just pack up their offices and leave DC.
pseudonymous in nc
Word
A Washington Post's news analysis described Alito as "low key" but "short on specifics." His replies didn't rock the status quo, the headline announced.
USA Today said Judge Alito "was effective and did not hit any bumps as he headed toward confirmation to succeed the retiring Sandra Day O'Connor."
Even a blog on the Planned Parenthood of America website wondered, "Where, oh, where is the drama in these hearings? Except for Dianne Feinstein's rally late today, it's like watching a tetherball tournament. Between the speech-making, his artful dodging, and the questions that not even Clarence Thomas could have messed up, I don't know how we're going to learn what he really thinks," the Planned Parenthood blogger wrote.
The Democratic National Committee posed the question, "Can We Trust Judge Sam Alito?" The DNC website said, "Judge Alito almost gives the impression of a man who will say anything he can in a job interview to get that job."
Likewise, the liberal interest group, Alliance for Justice, wondered, '"What won't Judge Alito say when he's trying to get a job?" Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron described Alito as "evasive," waffling, and said the American people "deserve a fuller, more forthright discussion of Judge Alito's record and views."
But Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican supporter of Judge Alito, commented, ''There's a growing sense of inevitability that he will, in fact, be voted favorably out of the committee and confirmed."
As far as deluding myself about Alito, I'm coming to the sad conclusion that I shall never again sit on the high court. Nevertheless, you liberals should fight this guy if only for my benefit.
.
William H. Rehnquist
As good a reason as any to filibuster this guy. And the more I listen to these blowhards, the more convinced I am that we need to absolutely filibuster this guy. Let the repukes close down the government in retaliation. They did it before and it didn't work out so well for them,now did it?
Tim-MEH didn't want to testify against Scooter because he was afraid he couldn't get a date to the prom if he did.
Why is Durbin the only one capable of asking questions that should be put to a Supreme Court candidate?
I keep wondering when the emotional maturity of this country will bottom out...
Go Team!
If they're so confident, why are they anointing the room and doing preemptive mewling about the filibuster?
Personally, I think the filibuster is likely, since our man Reid tends to play such things close to his chest. No one expected him to close the Senate, ither, did they?
I really like Durbin. He seems to be a really decent person.
OT: Iran ex-leader lashes out at West
Iran's influential former President, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has lashed out at the international community's anger at Iran's nuclear research.
He said he was "astonished" by the "bullying, particularly in the era of democracy, freedom and human rights".
I'm sure that's how maney Germans felt when they saw Hitler's rise to power. They probably only started caring when the war came home to them as they were losing badly.
Of course, by then it was far too late and I'm sure they all felt it was immensely unfair and why were so many bad things happening to them all of a sudden.
ps, Screw Godwin. If the Swastika fits...
atrios - i fear that the reason it doesn't matter to the bobbleheads - is because it doesn't matter to their lives. really. if their daughter gets pregant, there's always the trip to sweden (or where ever). their lives would really NOT be affected in the same way it could affect most of us. that's why we care and they don't.... about alot of things.
Oops: Durbin actually gets it. Not just the questions to ask, but the ways to ask them.
sheets
We have a rash of eminent domain issues around here. One is a successful Saturn dealer being displaced for a bigger tax revenue Costco, the other a massive development to replace a block of small buinesses and shops. The little guys are pissed, everybody thinks it stinks - they pay their bank and taxes yadda yadda. But nobody makes hte connection to the court.
This going on elsewhere?
It doesn't matter because nothing the government does will hurt them. They have arrived safely at insiderville, untouchable, ruling members of the plutocracy.
TR - 10:02 am
truth, dat...
at least as long as they toe the line, gargle the kool-aid, and truckle obediently to their betters...
Breaking News
Well, maybe they should ask the right questions, and expect a better answer.
Or is that too radical a notion?
That was a funny one about Ted Kennedy. This from a troll who knows all of his congressmen are counting the days before they are shipped off to San Quinten.
I was scapegoat for Bush, Bremer claims
The Bush administration is under more pressure over its handling of the war in Iraq after Paul Bremer, the former head of the coalition provisional authority, claimed his request for more troops was rejected by the Pentagon and the White House.
Mr Bremer, the man most commonly associated with implementing postwar policies that led to the rise of the insurgency, has claimed that senior US military officials including the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, tried to make him a scapegoat for their failings.
I really like Durbin. He seems to be a really decent person.
M.K.
I've met him and he is. Very quiet personality for a Senator - seems like the next door neighbor that you can trust.
Christ, are you pessimistic!
Are you this way about everything?????????????
Terry C, Bush Hater
Yeah, on everything having to deal with American politics, I am.
I don't think of it as pessimistic - I think I'm rather realistic.
Honestly, do you believe anything otherwise is going to occur with this nomination?
I doubt that Wolf Blitzer or Tim Russert will ever need an abortion.
That was a funny one about Ted Kennedy. This from a troll who knows all of his congressmen are counting the days before they are shipped off to San Quinten.
Yanagi Bocho
The trolls are SUCH losers that they get woodies thinking about other people losing their rights.
Women want nothing to do with them, so they want us "punished."
Pathetic creatures, these Bush fellaters.
I doubt that Wolf Blitzer or Tim Russert will ever need an abortion.
wvmcl
Shame their mothers didn't abort them.
Tim-MEH didn't want to testify against Scooter because he was afraid he couldn't get a date to the prom if he did.
Holden Caulfield
Holden,
I read your post about Timmy over at First Draft (and it should be everybody's daily obsession) and I was disgusted that this guy who is considered fair and neutral obviously values his dinner party invitations more than he does truth and justice.
truth and justice
See, I spend a few minutes with you moonbats and suddenly I'm talking about truth and justice.
Jesus, I should know better.
"It's just a game played between rival high school football teams and they're just happy to go to the homecoming dance."
Well shit, atrios. You just figured that out?
Hell, just look at the way John Kerry ran his campaign for President.
Or look at the way the Dems have basically rolled over on just about everything Bush has wanted over the last five years, while the populist "little people" that really care, are marginalized as "far left" or whacked out Deaniacs.
It's a football game alright, but not one between 2 rival football teams. Rather, it's between a football team (the Republicans) and a glee club (the Democrats) that pretends to oppose them, and the supposed referees (the media) are jock-sniffing underclassmen praying for a pat on the head from a gridiron warrior.
Timmeh's a guy who writes a book canonizing a wife beating drunk.
What can you expect from someone like him?
They are fucking MCs, not journalists, alright? They are there to introduce and keep conversation moving along. Think of them as uber-hosts. If want to learn something, open your eyes or read a book. If you want to be entertained, turn on the tv. What a great world we live in! When things get really bad, at least we can all say, I told you so. What a consolation.
That is the the way it is. Win a game and someone might take you seriously, Dems. This is why you suck and nobody likes you.
ding ding ding
atrios is the winner - he figured out our dumbfuckistan politics
does anyone else think the "free press" has been schackled by the notion of "for profit press" or the "we'll-keep-kissing-your-buts, so-please-don't-stop-giving-us-leaks(meaning ratings) press"
If we can't have a truly free press, is it not time we start stating that fact as frequently as the GOP spews the term "liberal media"?
They look, act and sound as if it doesn't matter to them because it really doesn't.
Why not? Because they're rich.
It's that simple.
There is very little that money can't buy. Freedom from worry about healthcare delivery, freedom from worry about paying the rent, control of one's life, etc. Money makes all this vey easy.
We don't have reporters on TV any more. We have movie stars. Occasionally, when "embedded", they turn into action figures.
But they never, EVER approach the daily living conditions of the vast majority of Americans. What's more, these TV reporters are not likely to even KNOW any "normal" Americans. How many working class men and women do you think Blitzer associates with? Zero.
Tim Russert may wax eloquent about his working class roots. But he sure as shit never associates with any working class people.
Since reporters these days have no link to working class people, and nothing in common with them, they are wholly incapable of "reporting" with any empathy for the common man or woman.
This is the great travesty. The people running the government and all rich. The corporations who run the politicians are all enormously wealthy.
And the TV press - where most Americans get their news - the TV press, whose job it is to protect the public, ensure government honesty and openness - that TV press is populated and controlled by very wealthy people.
Orwell was right about the rise of totalitarianism. He was just wrong about which tradition it would come from. He figured socialism would create it, but it turns out that fascistic crony capitalism is doing it instead.
It's just a game played between rival high school football teams and they're just happy to go to the homecoming dance.
Bingo.
And this is exactly how the Republicans want it all to be framed. Their very ideology is that this is all a game -- a power play: that good government is a futile goal so the only thing that matters is power decoupled from the responsibility that ought to go with it (I keep repeating this -- don't they teach Shakespeare anymore?).
And that, btw, is the biggest problem with Gore and Kerry and especially Joementum wanting to be good sports about elections. While it is imperative that those who loose elections be gracious (and those who win be magnanimous), to view elections through the lens of sportsmanship is -- as my foreign flatmates, to whom the concept of applying sportsmanship to elections seems outrageously un-democratic, often pointed out to me in 2001 and early 2005 -- to dismiss politics as a game whose sole meaning is the obtainance of power. I.e. taking the attitude that elections are a game not only is contemptuous of the voters' will but also per se represents a victory for the Republicans as it accepts their frame.
And why should people vote for a party that is contemptuous of their wills (*) and acceeds everything to the Republicans anyway? What would Truman say about that? If we Democrats cannot show we can fight, then we will continue to loose elections -- especially when people are concerned about national security and our ability to fight. At least, since the Republicans really believe it's all a game, they are playing to win. Are we even doing that?
* As to the issue of contempt for the will of the electorate, I wonder -- is the important part of "I won't vote Dem. 'cause they are out of touch with my will on social issues" is not "out of touch on social issues" (and we never will be in touch on social issues ... when it comes to social and moral issues, "the minority is always right" -- that is why we ought not to let morality be decided by legislative processes, i.e. majority rule -- but even though we'll never win on social issues, abandoning our positions on them not only would be wrong, but would turn off voters as they would, correctly, see it as pandering) but rather "out of touch with my will" ... perhaps we Dems. don't need to move to the right so much as indicate that we actually respect the will of the electorate when they do vote for us by respecting that they actually want us in charge! It's almost a matter of self-confidence. Republicans do well 'cause they are brazen -- they feel the electorate wants them in charge, so those who do want them in charge have their will respected. If the majority want us in charge, how are we respecting the will of the majority when we cave to Republicans as a matter of sportsmanship -- 'cause we view it all as a game? That, more than our views on social issues, demonstrates our contempt for the will of the majority and is likely what looses us the goodwill of same.
Republicans treat politics as a game and play to win. We acceed to their frame, try to be good sports -- and guess what: we loose the goodwill of the electorate. Even if we play to win, we won't do too well being "Republican-lite" as Republican voters already have a party (as per Truman) -- to recast Ben Franklin: those who sacrifice principles for electability deserve neither -- and will get neither ... and there is no IOKIYAR hypocrisy here as Republicans don't sacrifice principles for electability as among their principles is that it is all a game ... but that is not one of our principles. We need to demonstrate to voters who care (and even more importantly to convince more voters to care) we respect them enough to realize, even as Republicans don't, that it's not a game.
Corruption doesn't matter...at least didn't matter until prosecuters caught the bastards and there is no way to paint this as the gray issue. I would lay the responsibility for the culture of corruption right at the doorsteps of the lazy media.
Even if, you use the silly football metaphor...media people, you are not in the goddamn stands of the game, you fucking morons. You are supposed to show what is happening on the field, not opinions of both teams as to what is happening. And this is no football game either.
We must fight Allito tooth and nail, win or lose. Unforturnately we have become the tyranny of the majority. We will have to win a few elections to turn the whole damn thing around.
I thought it interesting that the Democrats were somehow obligated, in the days leading up to this, to frequently assert that they "hadn't made up their minds" about this nominee, while the Republicans I saw never once made such a statement, nor did any of the newswhores ask them about it.
But don't you see? To them it does not matter because, like our million dollar politicans, the policy decisions don't really affect them. They are, effectively, part of the ruling class, and as such, are not to be bothered by problems of healthcare, retirement, public schools, etc. Need an abortion? Fly to Europe or where ever it is legal. Is there a war on? Don't let your kids signup (why would they need to? money is never a problem, college is paid for), there will never be another draft.
Seraphiel and beaut ...
I second what both of you have to say ... do sports reporters base all their reporting on a fair and balanced assessment of the game from both teams? No. Perhaps we should have pointed this out to Danny Boy Okrent as sports metaphors are about all he understood.
And yes ... if Senators are supposed to advise and consent rather than rubber-stamp, why should it be ok for Republican Senators to have prejudged Alito? Isn't that the sort of partisanship Washington worried would undermine our democratic republic?
I couldn't watch the hearings, but I kept being told that Kennedy was slapping Alito around on the strip search issue.
But on the corporate nightly news, not a single peep about it.
Beyond pathetic.
If you watch the NBC nightly news, the intro is this little cult of personality moment.
As the triumphant trumpets blare, the list of hero reporters is read: Chet Huntley, John Chancellor, Tom Brokow...
I don't watch them when a public hearing occurs...
The screen is obscured, and all to often the segue incorrectly, and stomp on content...
CSPAN only...
Of course they act like it's just a game. To them it is. TV personalities are well paid enough that nothing ever need affect their lives. No concerns for them. Just a lot of inside baseball.
and depressing. This may be the deep depression that I have been fearing since 9/11 gave them the excuse for the endless Orwellian war and the destruction of the country after Bush grabbed the second election.
Nothing seems to outrage these people. Not the lies for a war, not the violation of rights, not the pathetic treatment of the army that they send to do their bidding. and now a guy that wants to reverse settled law because he is a religious right wing fascist on grounds that he is normally against. Nothing.
They lap up the lies and fall all over themselves just so they can talk to the people in power. They make me want to throw up.
But blowjobs-- now THOSE matter.
And that wankette Lizzie Bu(llshit)miller didn't even discuss anything of substance in her piece in today's NYTimes. Stupid cunt.
Judge Fuckface
Green Party.
I thought I was the only one who feels this way . . . [sigh]
.
INFOTAINMENT
its what the customer wants.
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I got the same feeling as Atrios last night. Headline News came on & the pretty bobblehead was saying that some people consider Alito conservative. It's all just silly black/white labels, pretty, not pretty, rich, not rich, missing & white, missing & not white, conservative, not conservative. I couldn't take it. They complain about liberals not having any values. At least we care about things to try & see some objective reality.
I don't really like to say this but we are to some extent wasting our time criticizing politicians. The central problem is not the bad politicians; our system was designed to get rid of them over time.
The biggest problems we face are rigged elections and the bought and paid for media. And of course those problems are much more difficult to address, because there are no mechanisms explicitly designed to protect us against those particular hazards.
What exactly are we supposed to do? It seems that only prosecutors can operate with any degree of independence. That is not the way the Republic was supposed to be governed and it is a precarious situation.
"It's just a game played between rival high school football teams and they're just happy to go to the homecoming dance."
No, no, no! Please! That is the same "it doesn matter / Gore/Bush = Coke/Pepsi" thinking that got us into this 8 year debacle in the first place.
Think of all of the positive turns on some serious negative goings on:
Fitz took out Libby
Abramoff turned state's evidence
DeLay is facing trial
The more Bush speaks, the less people trust him
Duke Cunningham was taken down (by Josh Marshall, no less)
The NSA mess has been exposed
Elections are coming in November to take at least one house (we only need one, then we can investigate and subpoeana).
The judiciary committee hearings are in fact a dance of posturing and bravado, but don't think that some very calculated things are going on.
If you sigh, you die - hang in there.
I call this Blogger's Blues.
I had a long rant about it once at Brad Blog: Does Reality Even Matter?
Chin up, Atrios, old chum. At least you have readers!!!
"If a tree falls in the Amazon rainforest on Bush's watch, but the New York Times does not report it, has it really fallen? Well, yes it has, as we are painfully learning - and when thousands and thousands of such rainforest trees fall, our climate changes inevitably for the worse. The same thing goes for icebergs melting in the Arctic Circle or bodies rotting on the streets of Baghdad. Ignoring truths does not make them any less true. It just increases our ignorance."
I wish I would finally see some evidence in all these blogs that you at the top of the reality based community understood that this bunch in power now cannot be reasoned with! They don't care about anything except winning. Not people, not country, not our troops,and certainly not government as we have thought it existed! For g*ds sake, give up expecting them to respond to any kind or reasonable discourse!! It aint gonna' happen! Pitch forks at the palace gates is the only thing that's gonna' get their attention.
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