Official Alito Hearing Thread - Day 1 – Thread 10

[Sydnie]

Thread 1
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x98574

Thread 2
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x97051#97509

Thread 3

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=97502&mesg_id=97502

Thread 4

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=97974&mesg_id=97974

Thread 5

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=98574&mesg_id=98574

Thread 6

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=99949&mesg_id=99949

Thread 7

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=100612&mesg_id=100612

Thread 8

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=101339&mesg_id=101339

Thread 9

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=101789&mesg_id=101789


~~~ Please kick this thread for bettyellen and recommend it too. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=106&topic_id=25890&mesg_id=25890 ~~~

[Sydnie]

1. Cornyn continued n/t

[DemonFighterLives]

2. Maybe I'm tired

but the repukes don't press any matters, just point out nicey nice stuff.
:boring:

[Sydnie]

3. They have the nothing to see here attitude

no questions, nothing that wakes any of us up. Don't we still have Brownback tonight too?

[DemonFighterLives]

7. When they were talking in the lobby earlier

One of the republicans stated that many were impressed with Alito and started playing the eminent card. That is really just throwing the talking points out there. In there small mind, we shouldn't even have to follow the process.

[Moochy]

5. They only talk about the dem's questions

Oh poor little alito, you like the little guy with the submachine gun, you really do!! despite what them mean 'ol dems say.

[Sydnie]

13. and you're not a racist, you're really not!

They just do you wrong.

[DemonFighterLives]

14. Well that would follow the tried and true rule

They are copycatters and normally can't think for themselves. Many examples out there.

[Moochy]

37. oops delete

[DFLer4edu]

4. Do you still beat your wife?

After Shumer's brilliant analogy of the man who hates his mother in law the senator talking right now started out his line of "questioning" with a false analogy. He made the analogy that if you ask a man "Are you still beating your wife?' It makes the assumption that you used to beat your wife when in fact you didn't. The problem with the analogy is that Alito did say Roe v. Wade was unconstitutional, therefore under the analogy he beat his wife and the do you still beat your wife question (do you support abortion) is a legitimate question.

[Sydnie]

8. You get a big AMEN for that

Cornyn is a moran. Worse than a used car salesman. If they must torture, they should use his speeches.

[bettyellen]

6. One more guy advising to put Roe on the backburner, and I am going to go

:nuke:
put on backburner= willing to gamble away the rights of 1/2 the population

at least call it what it is, and admit it: you don't care enough to make it an issue, because you personally have nothing to lose.

[worldgonekrazy]

18. Jeez. With some people you just can't have an intelligent conversation...

about abortion. I'm not attacking the right to choose, I'm not saying the Democrats shouldn't support it, and I'm not saying that it ought to be left on the wayside. I was saying that, as a strategy to sink Alito's nomination, I'm not sure its the right STRATEGIC approach. Thats it.

[suffragette]

24. Attacking on more than one flank has often been a better

strategy than just focusing on one area and from what I heard questions were asked about a variety of issues, including the very important one of Roe vs Wade.
I, for one, am glad he was pressed on that issue.

[Sydnie]

26. That's true

discrimination, spying, powers of the president, r v w. Lots of issues were brought up.

[DemonFighterLives]

35. Good Point

More than one issue will be good. I'm glad abortion was put in front of Alito, but somehow I hope that it doesn't become the major issue.

[bettyellen]

34. heard it before, for many years. am done with that nonsense.

either you support the civil rights of 1/2 the party, or admit you are abandoning them- to play politics and suck up to the pro-breeding, anti-contraceptive, anti-privacy MINORITY.
so are you a man, or do you just personally oppose abortion? because it's always one or another with you guys.

[DemonFighterLives]

28. Not to stir the pot but your emotions seem to be running wild

I don't care for the comment that you have to be a man or against abortion to backburner this. I guess I can't comment because I am a man, but in the last thread 3 things were mentioned to take Scalito down.
1. FISA
2. Vanguard
3. Abortion
not necessarily in that order.
I don't want women er Americans to lose the right to choice, but the repukes are laying in wait for us to choose the abortion issue. It is their favorite to divide the nation alongside gay marriange. If we can take Scalito down in another manner, I feel it would be healthier for us all, Men, Women, and Children.

[bettyellen]

36. FISA= PRIVACY = SCHIAVO= REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

all tied up in a nice package of how the govt is getting up into our homes, our lives in a frightening manner.

i'm waiting for a woman who isn't the rare pro-breeding Dem to make the same arguments men here do all the time. For women, it's always later, just wait a bit. They haven't expended ANY energy framing this issue properly, and yeah, i'm plenty disgusted.
I will not support a party that doesn't support the rights of 1/2 it's members- NOW, when it matters greatly.

[DemonFighterLives]

40. I understand and thanks for not flaming the hell out of me

Not to stick up for men, but they are perhaps half of the democratic party. Dem. men are far superior to repub. men IMHO. :rofl: I was part of a relationship where we/us had an abortion. It may have been the right situation, but I'm not especially happy about it.
Let's hope that abortion becomes a last option- something that Clinton was aiming for.
I am all for it to be in the package against Alito, just hoping that the entire debate doesn't center around "it".- not a mans thing only, but a democratic thing - for the benefit of the party.
:grouphug:

[bettyellen]

41. not flaming you, just this "let's backburner this" talk that

at this point, seems endless. we heard it during 2000, 2004, then roberts... LOL. in the meantime we are losing clinics, the morning after pill, the HPV vaccine- it's frightening what's been happening without loud Dem opposition.
i happen to think the FISA and Schiavo things are co-opportunties to make people think hard about putting the brakes on how far the govt can intrude. it's all chipping away at our freedoms.
what i do not get, in the face of overwhelming support for abortion rights- why are we feeling the need to shy away? why have we not formulated an effective message after all these years?
it always comes down to this "strategic" thing, and it's a lazy man's way out. seriously, over the years i have seen this every single time, this strategic nonsense, this backburner talk, never comes from people who wholeheartedly support reproductive freedom. it always comes from people who lack empathy for some reason, unfortunately, that means it's most often a man. i don't like it any more than you do.
along those lines, i blame these same "strategic thinkers" for people getting the idea Dems stand for nothing, our representatives must stand by certain principles in order to regain the respect and support from the voters. that respect and support has been lost by acting as if our lives were a chess game. this feeds into the crap about it all being a partisan fight too, because the "players" are seen to lack convictions. you see it here with posters saying we do nothing if we don't know we can win it.

[DemonFighterLives]

42. Thank you bettyellen

I am in much agreement with you, but in my world the issues seem broader. Maybe I'm a fool.
I am a Christian, but prefer to not wear it on my sleeve. I also have some biology and genetics background. A few cells to be thrown out is one thing, but "ending" pregnancies by other means pushes the buttons of some people. I realize we need family planning and alternatives to the breed like rabbits thing.
At the same time our Dem. leaders or most of them don't stand up because the rabid right is more vocal and the talking points and paid off media are working.
I think the dems. are the silent majority and pukes are seriously deluded. In fact we know that. We don't need the right wing throwing dead baby pictures in front of fox and cnn cameras. The silent majority is most likely against going backwards as a nation.

[bettyellen]

43. what you all have to remember is that they are trying to limit the

opportunities to prevent pregnancy and STDs too. To limit access to good health care that even women who are with one partner their whole lives (their ideal, right? ) still need. We can't all be baby machines or virgins forever, some of us know we just ain't suited to motherhood, it should not be forced on anyone. We need to be grown ups and promote giving people the tools to behave in a responsible and healthy manner, even if what they are doing ain't our cup of tea. Women instinctively get this, we all know other women who've been raped or sexually abused, condoms that have slipped off -- leaving you to worry your whole life is going to be all about somebody else for the next 18 years, shared with a partner you hadn't bargained keeping around for that many years. For a woman, the course of her entire life can be re charted in this instant. It blows my mind how many men unthinkingly take the gamble. but I am not surprised men have trouble empathizing with this. It's hard to get the scope of it unless you've been in those shoes yourself and worried about possibly losing your education, job or family, as well as your plans for the next 18 years or so.

[DemonFighterLives]

44. I thought I was empathizing with you

I appreciate the conversation, but I don't know what to tell you. I am all for alternatives for women and it also includes men in some cases who don't need to be "trapped" and in some cases pay child support that can itself be stifling. There are plenty of cases of men after divorce, possibly not their fault, whose burdens were so great that they killed themselves or turned into useless bums.
Every case is different. It is never all one way. My wife ran off for a month when my baby was 11 months old. When she got back, she basically demanded her baby and I went to college. I paid child support for 18 years and attempted to stay attached to my son, but things have not been good.
I don't want to rehash it all but suffice it to say it was a bad deal and not all my doing.

Again, I am not trying to lessen the burden of women, but like my wife and I, are a team. Men are from venus or is it mars-diversity can be good.

[Radio_Lady]

45. Hi DemonFighterLives. My ex-husband paid me child support for

a few years for two kids, ages one and two when we divorced in 1971, but in 1973, when I remarried a man with three older kids, he reduced the amount without court approval.

Later, I had a medical problem and we "exchanged" custody because I was unable to care for the children temporarily, as I was hospitalized. I asked him to take them in June 1980 and keep them until I felt better. He refused, and I had to sign a document in the hospital giving him full custody until they were 18 years old and obliging me to pay him support. The kids went to live with him in his small Vermont town, 120 miles away from their home with me and their stepfather. They were ages 10 and 11 and they remained with him and their stepmother until they graduated high school, when both of them chose to get out of the small Vermont town and return to our suburban home near Boston, Massachusetts.

I paid child support to him for all of those years. Non-custodial mothers were a closet issue for women in those days; I started a national organization for women called Mothers Without Custody, Inc. in the 1980s. There was even a book written about it by that title "Mothers Without Custody" by Dr. Geoffrey Greiff, now out of print, I believe. Still, the problem of separation from either mother or father after divorce remains a very grave issue.

I'm sorry you don't have a good relationship with your son. That can happen even in a nuclear family, believe me. I hope things get better for you and him in the future. As consolation, my husband's firstborn son, whose mother died when he was 13 years old, and who rejected us for decades, has recently started a better relationship with his father. He's in his 40s now, and my husband turns 72 this year, but it's better late than never. Don't ever give up on your son.

In peace,

Radio_Lady

[DemonFighterLives]

46. Sorry to hear of your plight

It is a shame that courts have to decide who gets who. I hope you have your health back and I hope that life treats you right. My son and I were doing some good bonding during his 18 to 20 year age span, but somehow his girlfriend decided to dump everyone. I got to meat my first Grandchild, a beautiful baby girl and then had to hear though the grapevine that I have a 2nd Grandchild, a little boy. The grandkids are growing up and "Grandpa" is left out, so far. I am hoping to do some patching up if I can soon. :shrug:
The older generation, my father is embroiled in a squabble with my SIL which makes me feel like both ends of my spectrum are Bucking- Dad's word for people not getting along or Stormtrooping- another of his words for it. His saying goes,"they'll just have to buck it out". The saying comes from breaking horses, and eventually the fight goes out of them.

My hopes as with the rest of the world is, in the words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along".

:hug:

[worldgonekrazy]

9. Cornyn slipped up and referred to Alito as "Scalito"!

Hahaha!

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Bwaaaa... Cronyn called him Scalito

ROFLMAO

[AlwaysDemocrat]

12. You just knew that would happen sometime..

Glad it was a Repug that did it...

[CottonBear]

19. Bwahahahahahahahahahah! THAT was funny and demeaning

to Alito all at the same time... :rofl:

[0007]

30. Cornyn is such an ass........Cornyn and Jeff Sessions are

beyond the imagination.

[jefferson_dem]

11. SCALITO! LOL! Putty-face Cornyn just said it!

[LizW]

15. Oh, NO! That's hilarious!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Sydnie]

16. awwwwww it's his nickname with them too. LOL

Chimpy must have called him that!

[gumby]

17. "Scalito"

BWHAHAHAHAAAAA

That Cornyn is just smart as a tack, eh?

[Surya Gayatri]

32. Yes, and with the smarmy faux

sincerity of an undertaker flogging coffins. SG

:puke:

[LSK]

20. callers

[Sydnie]

22. YES. They should have an hour before they begin the replay n/t

[LSK]

23. 1st call - the clenis

:rofl:

[CottonBear]

27. No shit. They really blame everything on the mighty Clenis?

Bwahahahahaha! :rofl:

I actually heard a CSPAN caller blame something on Pres. Truman the other day. :eyes:

[Gregorian]

29. Incredible! To whine about Clinton you have to overlook Bush killing.

How on earth can anyone be so stupid as to whine about Clinton lying before a grand jury about a FRIVOLOUS impeachment? You'd have to literally overlook the fact that Bush has committed virtually dozens of crimes against the world, among many high crimes.

It's maddening to think such idiots live among us.

[Surya Gayatri]

33. Even scarier to think

that we're trapped living among them! And related to them in some cases! :scared:

[Sydnie]

21. Gavel down - til tomorrow at 9:30 et n/t

[Sydnie]

25. second call asking about gay and age discrimination n.t

[Sydnie]

31. Notice this caller talks about Kennedy and Schumer but not

grassley or the other "speech makers". :puke:

[Moochy]

38. Last caller before scotty dog and pony show..

"Republicans had better charts..."
This caller likes show and tell. fucking brainwashed CSPAN callers

[DemonFighterLives]

39. Scotty boy pushing the eminent meme

They are playing the press conference from today.