Kerry post on Huffington "The Vote Of A Lifetime"

[fedupinBushcountry]

The Vote Of A Lifetime

Many people seem curious or even skeptical why United States Senators believe it's so important to take a stand against the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court -- why we're willing to take on a fight that conventional wisdom suggests we will lose.

The reality is simple. We care about the future of our country.

We care about the millions of Americans who expect Congress to stand up and fight for their rights and their freedoms, and we also know that the Supreme Court, again and again, is the battlefield on which those rights and freedoms are decided.

So let's get this straight. The time to fight is now - before we make the irreversible decision of confirming a new Supreme Court Justice. When you're talking about the Supreme Court, you don't live to fight another day. It's a zero sum game. Once Judge Alito becomes Justice Alito, there's no turning back the Senate confirmation vote. We don't get to 'take a mulligan' when choosing a Supreme Court Justice. The direction our country takes for the next thirty years is being set now. Will it matter if we speak up after the Supreme Court has granted the executive the right to use torture, or to eavesdrop without warrants? Will it matter if we speak up only after a woman's right to privacy has been taken away? Will history record what we say after the courthouse door is slammed in the faces of women, minorities, the elderly, the disabled, and the poor? No. History will record what we say and what we do now.

more>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-kerry/the-vote-of-a-lifetime_b_14688.html

[Greeby]

1. ......

:applause:

[sandnsea]

2. The Time To Fight Is Now

This is the best yet. Right on target, the whole thing.

[Roho]

3. That's awesome

Maybe we can keep this kicked. Or stuck at the top. Here is another great paragraph...

People who believe in privacy rights, who fight for the rights of the most disadvantaged, who believe in balancing the power between the President and Congress have no choice but to stand up against Judge Alito

[ProSense]

7. That's an excellent statement. n/t

[Surya Gayatri]

4. K & R

And that makes 5--off to 'Greatest'! SG

[rox63]

5. What can I say?

We keep growing an excellent crop of really great Democratic politicians here. Now if we can just get a new Dem governor into the State House this fall, we'll be all set.

[Kire]

6. K&R nt

[IndyOp]

8. Let's hear it for the boy!!

Let's give the boy a :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

This is an *excellent* post - *excellent* timing -> :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

GET YOURSELF OVER HERE --> and send EASY, FREE, ONLINE FAX to ALL of the KEY SENATORS listed here:

Akaka, Baucus, Bayh, Biden, Bingaman, Byrd, Cantwell, Carper, Chafee, Clinton, Collins, Conrad, Dayton, Dorgan, Feingold, Feinstein, Harkin, Inouye, Jeffords, Johnson, Kohl, Landrieu, Lautenberg, Levin, Lieberman, Lincoln, Menendez, Mikulski, Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Obama, Pryor, Reed, Reid, Rockefeller IV, Salazar, Schumer, Snowe, Specter, Stevens, Voinovich

Can you make calls?

Toll-free numbers for Congressional Switchboard:
1-877-851-6437 or 1-888-355-3588
1-888-818-6641 or 1-800-426-8073

Phone numbers for Senator's Local Offices - Nationwide
<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=262959>

Kennedy's staff suggested we contact:

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (AR) 202-224-4843
Webform: http://lincoln.senate.gov/webform.html

Sen. Mark Pryor (AR) 202-224-2353
Webform: http://pryor.senate.gov/contact/

Senator Cantwell (WA) 202-224-3441
Webform: http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/

Senator Murray (WA) 202-224-2621
Webform: http://murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm/

Senator Baucus (MT) 202-224-2651
Webform: http://baucus.senate.gov/contact/emailForm.cfm?subj=issue

Senator Harkin (IA) 202-224-3254
Webform: http://harkin.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm

Senator Levin (MI) 202-224-6221
Webform: http://levin.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm

Senator Bayh (IN) 202-224-5623
Webform: http://bayh.senate.gov/LegForm.htm

Senator Lautenberg (NJ) 202-224-3224
Webform: http://lautenberg.senate.gov/contact.html

Senator Menendez (NJ) 202-224-4744
No email

Can you make calls? Contact the RED STATE DEMS

Sen. Mary Landrieu (LA) 202-224-5824
Web Form: http://www.landrieu.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm

Sen. Byron Dorgan (ND) 202-224-2551
Email: [e-mail]

Sen. Kent Conrad (ND) 202-224-2043
Webform: http://conrad.senate.gov/webform.html

Sen. Tim Johnson (SD) 202-224-5842
Web Form: http://www.johnson.senate.gov/emailform.cfm

Sen. Robert Byrd (WV) 202-224-3954
Web Form: http://www.byrd.senate.gov/byrd_email.html

Sen. Ken Salazar (CO) 202-224-5852
Web Form: http://salazar.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

Sen. Susan Collins (ME) 202-224-2523
Web Form: http://collins.senate.gov/public/

[TayTay]

9. Excellent speech to the troops on the eve of battle

Thank you Sen. Kerry!

Keep calling.

[rox63]

10. After you finish calling faxing and emailing Senators

Go on over to HuffPo and give Kerry some props for taking this stand and sticking it to the * admin.

[mcscajun]

13. Good idea! Done! n/t

:)

[samhsarah]

11. Thank you, President Kerry.

Thank you.

[mcscajun]

12. Great post by Kerry! Thanks for sharing it.

I've faxed all of the fence-sitters that I didn't get to yesterday, when I faxed my own state's Senators, and those I'd given money to. :)

[MH1]

14. Wonderful!

Kerry really spells it out.

Thanks for posting.

[scab_picker]

15. What did Kerry think was going to happen when he gave up?

What we need are new voices of protest, not 'elected' voices. I want Kerry to lead a tax revolt. We will not get attention in Washington D.C. until we cut off the flow of money.

[WinkyDink]

16. My e-mail to Menedez, Byrd, and Inouye:

SIR:
DO THE RIGHT THING.

Judge Alito is nothing more---NOTHING MORE---than a manufactured from raw materials tool of the Federalist Society. He's been groomed (as perhaps GWB was) his entire academic and professional life, like an Olympic gymnast, for THIS MOMENT.

THIS MOMENT. NOT "next time", or "November elections", or "when Justice Kennedy steps down", or "when Bush threatens Iran"....
THIS TIME.
THIS DAY.
THIS MOMENT.

THIS VOTE.

THIS VOTE is the sea-change, the moment in world history when the United States of America, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, becomes a DICTATORSHIP.

With ONE MAN above the law.
With ONE MAN to determine, literally, our liberty, whether we ought to be "Padilla'ed".
With ONE MAN to determine if we ought to remain secure in our persons and free from illegal searches and seizures.
With ONE MAN to declare and wage illegal war, and to continue, therefore, the killing and bankrupting of our very selves.

With ONE MAN to determine if the Bill of Rights and the rest of the Amendments---including PRESIDENTIAL TERM LIMITS---are still operable, "in a post-9/11 world".

With ONE MAN to decide if another human being ought to be tortured. TORTURED.

HOWEVER, the POWER TODAY STILL resides with YOU.

TODAY, YOU have the POWER to say to that ONE MAN: "You are NOT ABOVE THE LAW!"

BECAUSE JUDGE ALITO, if he becomes JUSTICE ALITO, would NOT say that.
HE would use HIS power to say to that ONE MAN something RADICALLY DIFFERENT, for JUSTICE ALITO would NOT say, "You are not above the law." He would NOT EVEN say, "You are ABOVE the law."

No.
JUSTICE ALITO would say to that ONE MAN, "YOU, Sir, ARE THE LAW."

MAKE NO MISTAKE about that.
Make no politically-calculated GUESS.

Any Democratic Senator who thinks his or her future election is best assured by allowing the confirmation of Justice Alito is seeing neither the forest nor the trees.
For the new ONE MAN--ONLY HIS VOTE doctrine will make the entire Democratic Party extinct, and quite possibly even criminalized.

Too radical a thought? And you know this how?
How radical was the thought that a President could "sign"---DEFYING BOTH THE LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS---that he might have to USE TORTURE??

Think about that.

VOTE "NO" to CLOTURE.

PLEDGE to FILIBUSTER.

~~~Feel free to use! Hee!

[madrchsod]

17. i posted this last night and it seems relevant

in light of what is going to happen in the following days http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2414431&mesg_id=2414431

[IndianaGreen]

18. "We care about the future of our country"

Bush has taken dictatorial powers for himself and few call of his impeachment. Alito believes in the theory that Bush can, as commander in chief, do whatever he wants, whenever he pleases. Alito on the Court will be another rightwing rubber stamp for the Bush dictatorship.

How sad that the American republic came to an end not as the result of foreign invading armies, but to the lack of care by her citizens.

[quiet.american]

19. Beautiful!

:applause: :patriot: :applause:

[in_cog_ni_to]

20. AWESOME letter!

<snip>No one will be able to say, in five to ten years, that they are surprised by the decisions Judge Alito makes from the bench. They know that in his fifteen years on the Third Circuit, Judge Alito has almost never voted in favor of African-American plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases. They know that he routinely defers to government invasions into personal privacy, often going out of his way to excuse unlawful government actions. And they know that the only statement he has ever made regarding a woman's right to privacy is that she does not have one.

People who believe in privacy rights, who fight for the rights of the most disadvantaged, who believe in balancing the power between the President and Congress have no choice but to stand up against Judge Alito.

I know better than anyone that elections have consequences and that the President has every right to nominate whomever he chooses to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. But I also know that Senators have the right - in fact, they have a constitutional responsibility, to question whether that nominee is the right choice. That is why the Framers required the Senate to provide advice and consent. We are not meant to be a rubber stamp. We need not rush to judgment simply to satisfy the political deadline of a State of the Union address.

I am convinced that Judge Alito is the wrong choice for America. In fact, I am convinced that he is a dangerous choice for America. This is a rare moment in Washington. We are facing the vote of a lifetime - a vote that will shape the law for generations to come. Despite the predictions of the pundits, the story is not over until the last vote is cast. We cannot win unless we try. The time to take a stand is now, to fight for the rights and freedoms of all Americans is when they're endangered not after they've been diminished. It is time to take a stand against Judge Alito, and take a stand for the kind of America we've been for over two hundred years.<snip>

[EVDebs]

21. Used to be 'Minutemen'...now we need 'Nanosecondmen'

to safeguard the Constitution from the neoconster monsters and Federalist Society autocrat/elitists !