Burnt Orange Report

Re About Us, what are the "same general Democratic principles?" Honestly, I have lost sight, I have lost faith in Congress completely. I am a registered Republican and I abhor the arrogance of Tom DeLay. I have no idea what the Democratic party stands for. I just heard about BOR tonight while googling Friends of Carlos Uresti who is slamming Frank Madla. Who is representing me? And, now I'm afraid of Google. I think that President Bush's heart is in the right place but.....

Talk to me BOR. You young people got any answers?

I'll Bookmark you and stay in touch.

I believe many of us have been planning to watch closely which senators will decline to filibuster Alito. However, I'm wondering if there is a way these weasels can mask their votes.

How about this scenario: Frist calls for a voice vote on cloture. There's a rousing chorus of "ayes" followed by a rousing chorus of "nays." Frist announces the ayes have it. No one asks for a roll call vote.

I know very little of parliamentary procedure or US Senate rules. Is this a possible result?

Come on over, Ken. I'll even tell you where you can get an Ex-Republican sticker just like mine:)

Democrats believe in many of the things Republican politicos claim to believe. We just actually try to do something about it. Self Determination, a healthy environment, vibrant economy, excellent education for all and fiscal responsibility are just a few of the things Democrats stand for. We believe taxes, when used prudently, are an excellent investment in the future of our communities, our state and our country.

I hope you'll join us this year!

Yes, Ken, you are more than welcome to join a party that wants to tax the guts out of American workers, degrade our military, treat the unborn as a piece of tissue, turn public education into a social experiment and whittle down an individual's right to display his or her religious faith in public.

ken said...

"tax the guts out of American workers" = untrue. tax those that can afford it, not give the wealthiest americans a tax cut. now that's what i call silly.

"degrade our military" = untrue. i've served nearly 9 years now. tell wes clark that, 34 years of service. anything the dems disagree with you consider degradation. that's just plain silly.

"treat the unborn as a piece of tissue" = untrue. how deep does this rabbit hole go? what a complicated matter. most dems/libs believe in prevention of which most repubs absolutely fail on. this could go on for days. don't want an abortion? don't get one. let's talk about safe sex, a proven prevention. abstinence (a republican standby) in and of itself won't work.

"turn public education into a social experiment" = untrue. free and great education for all. not taking funds away from the schools that need it most! that's just plain silly! and the last time i read (2 days ago) TX wasn't doing so great in this dept. facts are on my side with this one.

"individual's right to display his or her religious faith in public" = untrue. so you ok with muslims or buddhists or hindus or jews or jehova witnesses or 7th day adventists or what have you displaying, preaching or praying in "public" (i.e. schools etc.)???

i'm sorry, i'm not an eloquent speaker like you but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to smell bs from a mile away. sit down, take an honest look at things and let's go from there.

i'm sorry... Trey said that. one of the Treys anyway.

Uhm, yeah... that would be the New Trey. Much like New Coke, he sucks.

Trey, well... to use your style of debate... Republicans give corporations the ability to rape the environment, poisoning our air and water. The Rpublicans talk about how strong they are on defense while abusing the military, even going so far as to cut benefits to veterans in the time of war. Republicans are hell bent on breaking the middle class by gutting fair taxation and giving their donors huge tax cuts. Republicans hide behind the bible without ever having read it and are in fact the hypocrits Jesus warned us about in Matthew.

I haven't even started in on corruption or the economy... want me to go on?

Democrats actually care about the future of this county. We want to leave something better for the generations of Americans who'll come after us.

Back to the original topic of this post... the filibuster of Samuel Alito.

I write a blog with a group of 23/24ish year olds from around the country. One is from Texas, and he's a Democrat... a lone star in the Lone Star State as I'm fond of calling him.

Anyway, we've been chatting and whittled down the filibuster to this single rule:

1) Filibuster Samuel Alito on the grounds of his support for "unitary executive theory."

For the unitiated, this is something that Judge Alito gave during the recount days following the 2000 presidential election. In a speech to the Federalist Society, he announced his support for this theory that will erode the checks and balances on power in this country that keep it from being dominated by the President. Alito would like to erode the checking and balancing powers of the legislative and judiciary.

We include a list of the websites where you can send an email in support of the filibuster to the key Senators in this fight.

Well, as much as libs have implemented "creative spelling" and "creative math" in our schools, apparently I need to further explain my points for those of you who utilize "creative thinking"....

"tax the guts out of American workers" 1)How many of you Dean-iacs forgot Clinton's 1993 tax hike that raised everyone's taxes on income, social security and gasoline taxes -- amounting to be the highest tax increase in the history of the U.S. (I'm sure those of you who like to revise history will be quick to dispute this). 2)Bush's "tax cut for the wealthy" created lower brackets. Let me break this down for those of you who are still high as of 11 a.m. this morning: Bush created a new 10 percent bracket. I make $32,000 a year. Had Bush not created the bracket, I would have still been in the 15 percent bracket, and would have been paying $500 up front at tax time. While I'm single with no kids, $500 is alot to me. That amounts to a rent payment, 2/3 of a car payment, 3/4 of a dentist bill, etc.

"degrade the military"- Remember Sen. Durbin's speech on the House floor comparing American troops to Pol Pot or Nazis? Remember Jack Murtha (no, I'm not questioning his patriotism, so libs, don't get your panties in a wad)saying that he wouldn't join today's military? Did anyone read the article by Joe Klein (Los Angeles Times) that he does not support the military and that liberals who claim they "oppose the war, but support the military" are plain wussies for trying to ride the fence?

"treat the unborn as a piece of tissue"- How many times does the mainstream media label the pro-lifers as "anti-abortionists" as opposed to "right-to-lifers?" Very often! How often do the pro-choicers refer to an unborn child as a "fetus?" Almost always! Go figure.

"turn public education into a social experiment"- umm, last time I checked, teaching that Heather having two mommies is part of a liberal agenda. Changing Christmas parties into "Winter parties" is. Mandating that the school nurse now offer birth control pills to junior high girls is. Encouraging students to engage in protest marches during school hours while they should be receiving instruction on such subjects as English, science, history, etc. is. And for those of you who deny so, you might want to replace your 1960's calendars with a 2006 calendar. And sorry to disappoint you, but Peter, Paul and Mary won't be giving a concert in Austin anytime soon.

"individual's right to display his or her faith in public"- if such rights weren't being trounced upon, there would be no need for such groups as the American Center for Law and Justice, as well as the Rutherford Institute. When a Christian student wants to do a school project, the teacher spouts of about the fictional "separation of church and state" clause you liberals try to sneak into the Constitution. You libs want to fly a rainbow flag over courthouses and have "Gay Day" celebrations in the open square, but you spend tens of thousands of dollars fighting any individual or group that wants to put a nativity scene on the Courthouse lawn. You attack Bush for talking openly about his faith, but you go into certain churches and make Jesus sound like a modern day version of Karl Marx.

Need I explain any further? If so, for you Austinite libs, where could I set up a seminar? I'd be more than happy to indulge....

Croaky - I think that's the ONLY reason to stand against him. I frankly do not care whether the man is a racist or not. I think what makes him unqualified for the SC are his erroneous beliefs regarding the powers of the Executive branch.

TREY. Calm down. You have a persecution complex and you need to seek psychiatric help. Your other points just don't make any sense. I'm sorry you only make $32,000 a year but that's not my fault.

Oh, and on Clinton's tax increase, the economy that resulted from those tax increases and deficit reduction grew faster, with better paying jobs and lower unemployment (not to mention lower average interest rates) than the economy that resulted from Reagan's tax cut. If Bush had been smart, he'd have BEGGED Bob Rubin to be chair of the Fed.

R-E-L-A-X, hermano or you're going to have a coronary.

I hardly think that republicans give corporations the onus to rape the environment as stated in a previous comment. Do corporations like Exxon, 3M and BP employ literally millions of average kiddle class Americans? Yes. I agree that corporate influence is misplaced and often mismanaged, but the idea that corporate misdeeds are solely a republican issue is just not a valid arguments. What about the 7-or so MILLION dollars that Ted Kennedy has taken from defense contractors over the past 20 years? SPECIAL INTEREST IS SPECIAL INTEREST!!

Re: Alito filibuster - it is becoming plainly obvious that the influence in the party wielded by Sen. Kerry is waning quickly. There is no practical political reason to filibuster Alito, especially since Harry Reid said publicly that the caucus is divided. The dems need to focus on the midterm elections and 2008 - as a party. They will get their shot at the Supreme Court in the near future - Ginsburg is getting up there, for one - and they need to put themselves in the position to seize the oppurtunity.

I hate the 2 party system, especially now, because I truly feel that our elected officials, aside from a few (Feingold, McCain, Lieberman, etc.), are very inept.

TDM - I was making fun of the 'argument sans specifics' form of Trey's post by countering with the Democratic equivalent. A parody, if you will.

However, if you want polluting companies that give to Republicans, take a look at Texas Industries and Joe Barton.

There's an excellent reason to filibuster. The Presidency was never intended, under ANY circumstances, to have the kind of power Alito thinks the office should have. It's enough of a chance that he'll be just that kind of Justice that makes him completely unacceptable.

Just because the caucus is divided over what to do because of political consequences does not mean he should be confirmed.

Ken,

Why support Democrats? I agree, it's hard sometimes to really understand what Democrats stand for -- after all, before the corrupt Republican congressional leadership, there was the corrupt Democratic congressional leadership. (Which isn't to say that they're the equivalent; I would argue that the Democrats have never been as efficient and cold-blooded in their corruption as what we have now.)

I think that for a Republican, the best argument I can make for supporting Democrats right now is simply to stem the tide of abuse that's occurring now. A far more eloquent non-Democrat speaks more to this at his blog, After the Future. It talks about a lot of other topics too -- religion, mostly -- and so you'll need to hunt for his takes on politics. It's a great blog.

As far as what you'd see if Democrats came back into power -- well, that's a good question. Whether the party is taken over by idealists or falls back into the hands of the corrupt is open to debate. But you know without a doubt what you're going to get if the current people stay in control of government.

You can read this article to give at least some idea of the direction I hope the Democratic Party goes in down the road.

And if you're the Ken in Marfa, say hi to your son for me.

I never said anything to the tune of "because the democratic caucus is divided, Alito should be confirmed" - that would be ridiculous. I said it would not be politically practical, because it wouldn't be.

Polls show as much as 70% of Americans think Alito should be confirmed. And, from a political standpoint, which is sadly what Supreme Court nominations have become - political events, the division in the democratic party over Alito may go to show the left wing of the party is beholden to the MoveOn.org's of the world. While the comparable wing of the republican party holds probably equal relative control, democrats have just really not been able to appeal to middle class midwesterners in the old industrial states. I am from northern Minnesota, trust me, I know this to be fact.

Dems should save their ammo for the budget/deficit debate that is firing up right now. With government spending through the roof, they can label Dubya, the so-called conservative, an LBJ spender with a pen sion for borrowing.

It's the economy... the dems to stick to what they do best, that's what republicans have done and it won them over a decade of power.

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