Harry Reid's frame of Alito, as heard on NPR

[smoogatz]

He's "too radical for the American people." I love it. The is the ONLY frame that will win the PR battle over this whacko nominee.

[tavalon]

1. Not only is it good framing

it's also true.

[Crankie Avalon]

2. Yep. But then, Bush doesn't care about "the American people," he...

...only cares about "his base." (And "base" is truly the correct word to describe them.)

[mtnester]

7. Exactly, which are rich, white fundamentalist corporate MALES

Women, get ready...men, get ready to stand with us on this one.

[Divernan]

8. By opposing Family Medical Leave Act, Alito screws every American family

at least every American family where one or more members are working for a living. If you haven't had occasion to use the protection of this act, take a look at it. For all moms, dads, sons, daughters, husbands or wives - this is the Act which forces your employers to allow you to take both paid and unpaid leave to provide care for close family members in regard to their medical condition - whether it's caring for them for days or weeks at a time, or taking time off as needed to take them to medical appointments or treatments, or stay with them if they have sporadic periods of illness. Your employers cannot punish you for taking the time off. If one of your children, or parents, or spouse develops a medical illness or condition, or perhaps is in a major accident requiring a long recovery time, or simply ages into helplessness, the Family Medical Leave Act protects your job when you have to take time to provide care for them. This can be taking months off at a time, or just sporadic 1/2 days to take someone to doctors' appointments. You can use all your vacation and sick leave, and then take unpaid leave, and your employer cannot fire you.

[deadparrot]

3. Go get 'em, Harry.

Let's reject this nutcase.

[mmonk]

4. Yes, all dems

have to fight this. The coalition to avoid a filibuster does not apply in this case. Any dem needs to know the voting dem public will withdraw support if they compromise on this one.

[TheDebbieDee]

5. Harry Reid has been a pleasant surprise .......

in his role as the Democratic Senate Minority Leader. He's not as forceful as Howard Dean would be, but he is consistent and frequent in his complaints of the situations facing the Democrats.

I like him....he's a good egg!

[niallmac]

6. Agreed and also, if what I understand is true about

his encouragement of Bush in selecting Meirs for SCOTUS then Reid is an extremely
savvy politician. Miers was a stink bomb and Reid knew it. I too had serious doubts when he was selected Minority Leader.

[Douglas Carpenter]

9. as a progressive I was quite skeptical of Harry Reid at first

but he is one very shrewed politician who picks his fights very, very carefully

[Orlandodem]

10. When Dems filibuster they should frame it very simply...

"We believe (X,Y,Z) which are mainstream American values. Alito is out of the mainstream. We will filibuster because he is against mainstream values and those that Democrats stand for. We welcome all Americans to join us."

[papau]

11. A list of Alito's actions that make him unfit for the Supreme Court

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/31/samuel-alitos-america

Samuel Alito’s America

ALITO WOULD OVERTURN ROE V. WADE: In his dissenting opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Alito concurred with the majority in supporting the restrictive abortion-related measures passed by the Pennsylvania legislature in the late 1980’s. Alito went further, however, saying the majority was wrong to strike down a requirement that women notify their spouses before having an abortion. The Supreme Court later rejected Alito’s view, voting to reaffirm Roe v. Wade.

ALITO WOULD ALLOW RACE-BASED DISCRIMINATION: Alito dissented from a decision in favor of a Marriott Hotel manager who said she had been discriminated against on the basis of race. The majority explained that Alito would have protected racist employers by “immuniz an employer from the reach of Title VII if the employer’s belief that it had selected the ‘best’ candidate was the result of conscious racial bias.”

ALITO WOULD ALLOW DISABILITY-BASED DISCRIMINATION: In Nathanson v. Medical College of Pennsylvania, the majority said the standard for proving disability-based discrimination articulated in Alito’s dissent was so restrictive that “few if any…cases would survive summary judgment.”

ALITO WOULD STRIKE DOWN THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT: The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) “guarantees most workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a loved one.” The 2003 Supreme Court ruling upholding FMLA essentially reversed a 2000 decision by Alito which found that Congress exceeded its power in passing the law.

ALITO SUPPORTS UNAUTHORIZED STRIP SEARCHES: In Doe v. Groody, Alito agued that police officers had not violated constitutional rights when they strip searched a mother and her ten-year-old daughter while carrying out a search warrant that authorized only the search of a man and his home.

ALITO HOSTILE TOWARD IMMIGRANTS: In two cases involving the deportation of immigrants, the majority twice noted Alito’s disregard of settled law. In Dia v. Ashcroft, the majority opinion states that Alito’s dissent “guts the statutory standard” and “ignores our precedent.” In Ki Se Lee v. Ashcroft, the majority stated Alito’s opinion contradicted “well-recognized rules of statutory construction.”

[calmblueocean]

12. VETO ALITO: short and simple

Let's get these memes out there, folks! Blog 'em if you got 'em!