Democracy for New Mexico

Coretta's Funeral: Speaking Truth to Power

If you didn't get a chance to see the funeral of Coretta Scott King yesterday, you missed something powerful. Crooks and Liars has a compilation of clips from Keith Olberman's Countdown.

And here's video of Maya Angelou singing out and speaking about her "chosen sister" at the funeral. There were many uplifting and deeply felt words spoken yesterday, but these were some of my favorites. I also very much liked seeing all the magnificent hats worn by many of the now very elderly sisters of the civil rights movement. Icons of another time and place, still kicking, still striving, still elegant.

Could there be a more powerful contrast than seeing so many giants of the civil rights movement, still speaking truth to power, framed by the face of the fearmongering bully, the mocking warmonger in the background? The standing ovations against his immoral, dishonest mangling of the world were satisfying on some deep, unfathomable level to me. Will we really overcome? Hearing so many courageous and impassioned words by those who know what overcoming is all about makes it seem possible, still.

Another of my favorites was the Reverend Joe Lowery, the legendary former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Council. Here's the video. Excerpt:

We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. [Standing Ovation] But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more, but no more for the poor.

Jimmy Carter (click for video) also gave an excellent speech, bringing standing ovations when he mentioned how Martin and Coretta were harrassed by the FBI and domestic wiretapping and saying we have more work to do:

We only have to remember the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, those most devastated by Katrina, to know that there are still not equal opportunities for all Americans. It is our responsibility to continue their crusade.

I note the right-wingnutery bloggers are out in full force today, bashing these speakers and others for being "political" at Coretta's funeral. I wonder what they think her life and that of her husband's and those of so many at the event were about? These were decent, honest, righteous, POLITICAL people standing up bravely to bigotry and lies, personally and directly, often at the cost of their livelihoods or even their lives. And there you had the epitome of privileged bigotry and lies sitting right there on the platform, still grinning inappropriately after all these years. Amazing what happens when Bush steps outside his protective bubble of scripted events into the real world, isn't it? Oh, the right-wingers are so SHOCKED!

Rest In Peace

Coretta Scott King: April 27, 1927 -- January 30, 2006

Her funeral is taking place today. It's being televised on CSPAN, CNN, MSNBC and Fox. You can also watch or listen online at CSPAN2. The entire funeral will be reaired on CSPAN TV tonight at 6:00 PM MST. Here's a link to her elaborate funeral program. The New York Times has a good article about her life, including a slide show and video.

Could there be a more elegant and dignified representative of the civil rights movement? Coretta carried the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for 37 years after his assassination in April 1968, and did it with grace, strength and conviction. She also spoke out against a variety of injustices internationally and, unlike some others in the civil rights movement, strongly supported gay rights:

I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice," she said. "But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'" I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people. -- March 31, 1998

Peace and farewell, Coretta. And thank you.

I am convinced that if I had not had a wife with the fortitude, strength and calmness of Coretta, I could not have stood up amid the ordeals and tensions surrounding the Montgomery movement. I came to see the real meaning of that rather trite statement: “A wife can either make or break a husband.” Coretta proved to be that type of wife with qualities to make a husband when he could have been so easily broken. In the darkest moments she always brought the light of hope. -– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sound Off: State of the Union Kabuki

Truthout has a story by Cindy Sheehan on 'What Really Happened' when she was forcibly removed from the gallery and arrested shortly before Bush rambled through his latest pack of lies during last night's State of the Union address. This is not America, is it? Well, it's Bush's America anyway.

Click for an mp3 of Cindy Sheehan describing her arrest and her feelings about it.

I wonder when enough will be enough and politicos and citizens alike will wake up and take the drastic actions needed to rip away the masks of respectability from the neo-con vultures, revealing for all to see their grotesque, hypocritical, dishonest, corrupt, bigoted, venal, greedy and ultimately anti-American pathologies.

Let's call a spade a spade. People don't like to say this out loud, in public, but you know it has real "resonance," as they say in the focus groups. The origins of the neo-conservative "movement" lie in hatred, bigotry, repression, suppression, imperialism, corporatism, militarism and anti-democratic impulses. The people behind the BushCo curtain hate the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, privacy, freedom, blacks, browns, tans, gays, immigrants, foreigners, uppity women, poor people, social justice, economic fairness, environmentalism, humanism, charity, free speech, grassroots activism and any culture that isn't entirely consumerist and materialistic. They hate science and intellectual openness. They hate freedom and pleasure and sex. And they really hate anyone who acts freely, thinks critically, experiences pleasure without guilt or thinks sex is natural, not evil. They love war and torture, punishment and control, lockstep and order, power and manipulation, bribery and lies, shock and awe.

Definitions:

Fascist: A reactionary or dictatorial person

Fascism: A political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government (as opposed to democracy or liberalism). A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

Project For the Old American Century explores the 14 points of fascism as delineated by Laurence Britt in his article, "Fascism Anyone?"

Is it just me, or was there an eerie, scary energy in the chamber last night? When the camera panned around the hall, we kept commenting that way too many in the audience looked like warlocks, vultures, vampires, pod people or whatever you'd call people so glossed up with fake facades that they look inhuman, alien. Grey skin tones. Waxy smiles. Poorly dyed hair. Bizarre facial expressions and body language. Way too many creaky space cadets thinking it's still the 20th century. Trained seals flapping their flippers on command.

I had a truly surreal and Orwellian experience hearing Bush brazenly promoting issues he'd fought against tooth and nail for his entire presidency. To hear him speak about America's addiction to oil was almost too much to bear. Yeah George, we've been trying to get you to do something about that for years now. In response you launched an illegal invasion of Iraq, drooling for control of more, more, more.

He managed to include one sentence about those suffering the aftermath of his botched response to Hurricane Katrina. I guess he wanted to toss at least one crumb to the "compassionate conservatives" in his midst. No moment of silence for the troops -- dead, delimbed or PTSDed, or for the "collateral damage." No mention of the suffering of the Christian Science Monitor reporter still held hostage in Iraq. No reference to the ABC News people who nearly had their heads blown off in the war zone. No admitting his tax cuts and prescription drug scam and miltaristic adventuring and "free" trade policies and lost jobs will result in us owing the Chinese at least two trillion dollars when all is said and done.

Oh, he cares about jobs and health care and energy efficiency and education and poor people and Coretta Scott King and peace and democracy and veterans and freedom and justice. Is there any president who has done less to promote these things or more to devolve our culture into a greedy, oily, selfish, imperialistic brew? I can't come up with a name.

I'm sure some will say I'm off the deep end, in tin-foil hat territory. Exaggerating. Misguided. Overly dramatic. Maybe. But didn't watching that coldly calculated display of choreographed kabuki make a chill run up your spine? It can't be just me, can it? Apparently this guy, for one, agrees with me. How about you?

I have a dream that one day Democrats will file into a Bush kabuki event and turn their backs to the stage for the entire speech. I have a dream that one day Democrats will refuse to follow the SOTU script, decline to clap and call Bush out on on his dishonesty, loudly, every time he lies. I have a dream that one day America will wake up to the constitutional and planetary crisis at hand and step outside the lines to confront our demons. But then, I've always been a dreamer --Barbara Wold

PS: Does this remind you of the rants you hear on right-wing radio? Good. I think we should start responding in kind. Time to take the gloves off.

Sound Off is a regular feature of the blog that allows individuals to voice their personal views on timely issues and controversies. Click on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand side of the page if you'd like to submit your own Sound Off.

Alito: Hall of Cowards

The filibuster against Alito was stymied. Votes for cloture (and against filibuster): 72. Votes against cloture (and for filibuster): 25.

Here's the list of the 19 Dem Senators who betrayed the traditional principles of the Democratic Party and decided they couldn't "risk" supporting a filibuster. Many of them will vote no on the Alito nomination. However, they apparently didn't see any reason to go on the record as opposing Alito with no holds barred. Alito, one of the most divisive and dangerous nominees to the Supreme Court in decades, gets a pass. This bunch didn't even see any value in prolonging debate long enough to stop Bush from declaring victory and showcasing Alito at tomorrow's State of the Union. Whose side are they on?

A no vote on the nomination without supporting a filibuster is almost worse than a vote for Alito. If you read the scathing commentary on Alito of many of these spineless Dems, you'll wonder how they could decline to stand and fight with a filibuster. To me, they are nothing more than weak advocates who run and hide when the vile Republican spin machine threatens them. The least they could have done was to abstain from the cloture vote, as Tom Harkin (D-IA) did.

Democratic Hall of Cowards:
Daniel Akaka, HI
Max Baucus, MT
Jeff Bingaman, D-NM (more on this soon)
Robert Byrd, D-WV
Maria Cantwell, D-WA
Tom Carper, D-DE
Kent Conrad, D-ND
Byron Dorgan, D-ND
Daniel Inouye, D-HI
Tim Johnson, D-SD
Herb Kohl, D-WI
Mary Landrieu, D-LA
Joe Lieberman, D-CT
Blanche Lincoln, D-AR
Ben Nelson, D-NE
Bill Nelson, D-FL
Mark Pryor, D-AR
Jay Rockefeller, D-WVA
Ken Salazar, D-CO

As Bob Fertig says on Democrats.com:

So why did these Democrats decide to stab us all in the back? For one simple reason: because we let them.

Democratic candidates - at every level - take us, the Democratic base, completely for granted. They ask us for money and we give it to them - with no strings attached. They ask us for votes and we give it to them - with no strings attached. They are not accountable because we don't hold them accountable. That must change.

You might say.

A late addition from Maryscott O'Connor's diary on Daily Kos about this travesty, which mentions an absurd interaction with a staffer at Jeff Bingaman's office. Read it. And then think about how way too many Democrats think of the Democratic base as a powerless entity they don't have to even deal with seriously. Or even with any degree of respect.

Hey Bingaman staffers, did you get those 2000 calls in 20 minutes? Oh I know, it wouldn't matter if you did, unless it was from those campaign contributors with the deep pockets...

Here's today's floor statement by Kerry.

Last Chance to Urge Bingaman to Support Filibuster

Even ex-Republican, now Independent Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont is supporting a filibuster against Alito:

Statement of Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt. On Alito Cloture Vote January 30, 2006: I believe Judge Alito's appointment to the United States Supreme Court will shift the balance of the court for years, perhaps decades to come. I also believe that his judicial philosophy leans too far in favor of presidential powers. There is too much at stake for our country to allow this to happen. I will vote to oppose cloture on this nomination.

How can a Democrat like Senator Bingaman do less? Call him at one of his local offices or his DC number or use one of these toll-free numbers to reach him via the Senate switchboard: 888-355-3588 or 888-818-6641.

Tell him it's worth going all out to stop the extremist Alito even if we don't have the votes to filibuster. If we don't fight for what's right, how can we ever gain converts to Democratic positions?

Kerry Calling for Alito Filibuster: ACT NOW

Click for a post on Daily Kos by John Kerry explaining why he is urging a filibuster of Alito.

From People For the America Way:
Senator John Kerry has called for a filibuster of the Alito nomination, heeding your calls to do everything possible to defeat it. He has asked that activists now help convince his colleagues to join him. Please contact key senators who can provide critical support to the filibuster effort!

https://www.SaveTheCourt.org/AlitoFilibuster

Then pass this along to anyone you know who is worried that Alito would likely condone the abuse of power by the president, vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, and help curtail Congress' ability to protect the civil rights, health, safety, and welfare of the American people.

We need to act now to prevent Senate Republican leaders from ramming this nomination through the Senate -- time is of the essence.

See below for another filibuster effort using toll-free calls from Democrats.com:

Call Senators Immediately!

Call the Senators listed below, as well as your own, and tell them:

• a "No" vote is meaningless without a filibuster
• it is cowardly to only fight a fight when assured victory
• the American people need to see the Senate standing up for separation of powers and against the "Unitary Executive"

Use these toll free numbers to call the Capitol: 888-355-3588 or 888-818-6641.

If you can't get through, look up the Senator's District Office number in your phone book or here: https://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt?command=congdir

First: Call the three Democrats (Mary Landrieu, Ken Salazar, and Dianne Feinstein) who oppose Alito but also said they oppose a filibuster. We must persuade them that a vote against Alito is meaningless if they don't support a filibuster.

• Senator Salazar (D-CO)   202-224-5852
• Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)   202-224-5824
• Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)    202-224-3841

Second: Call your own Democratic Senator: 888-355-3588 or 888-818-6641.

If you can't get through, look up the Senator's District Office number in your phone book or here:
https://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt?command=congdir

Third: Unbelievably, three Democrats (Ben Nelson, Tim Johnson and Robert Byrd) support Alito!  Tell them to either support filibuster or at least "don't get in the way."

• Sen. Ben Nelson  (D-NE) 202-224-6551
• Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) 202-224-3954
• Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) 202-224-5842

Or 888-355-3588 or 888-818-6641. If you can't get through, look up the Senator's District Office number in your phone book or here:

https://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt?command=congdir

Fourth: Call the "Red State" Democrats: (Message same as above -- "No" is meaningless)

• Tom Carper (DE)
• Kent Conrad (ND)
• Byron Dorgan (ND)
• Blanche Lincoln (AR)
• Mark Pryor (AR)

Fifth: Call these "Blue State" and pro-choice Republicans: (Message: A "Unitary Executive" is dangerous to balance of powers--please do not get in the way of a filibuster.)

• Lincoln Chafee (RI)
• Susan Collins (ME)
• Lisa Murkowsky (AK)
• Bob Smith (OR)
• Olympia Snowe (ME)
• Ted Stevens (AK)

For extra credit, call all of the 2008 Presidential candidates who are sitting Senators--Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Russ Feingold, and John Kerry--and tell them to either LEAD THE FILIBUSTER or KISS YOUR SUPPORT GOODBYE.  888-355-3588 or 888-818-6641. If you can't get through, look up the Senator's District Office number in your phone book or here:
https://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt?command=congdir

You can also send that message to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (202-224-2447) and the Democratic National Committee (202-863-8000).

Share what you learn with Democrats.com members here:
https://www.democrats.com/alito-8

https://70.86.80.34/alito/alitosamerica.mov

Filibuster Alito: Bingaman's DC Office Phone Number is 202.224.5521

NY Times Addresses Senators in Need of a Spine

Read today's New York Times editorial on the Alito nomination. Excerpts:

Judge Samuel Alito Jr., whose entire history suggests that he holds extreme views about the expansive powers of the presidency and the limited role of Congress, will almost certainly be a Supreme Court justice soon. His elevation will come courtesy of a president whose grandiose vision of his own powers threatens to undermine the nation's basic philosophy of government — and a Senate that seems eager to cooperate by rolling over and playing dead.

It is hard to imagine a moment when it would be more appropriate for senators to fight for a principle. Even a losing battle would draw the public's attention to the import of this nomination.

...A filibuster is a radical tool. It's easy to see why Democrats are frightened of it. But from our perspective, there are some things far more frightening. One of them is Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court.

Call Senator Bingaman, who has not yet indicated whether he will vote yes or no on Alito's nomination. It's being reported that Senator Kerry and others are still trying to muster other Dems to filibuster. You know what to do.

11:15 AM Update: Terry Brunner of Senator Bingaman's staff reports that the Senator will vote no on Alito. When asked whether Bingaman supports a filibuster, Terry responded that, unfortunately, they don't have the 40 votes needed for one. No word on whether the Senator would support one.

Quote of the Day

An understatement from an article in the Christian Science Monitor:

"Many of these Democrats ran on the promise to fight with any means possible to bar someone like Samuel Alito," says Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. "Yet, the Democrats could not even field their members to a filibuster. That will leave a view with many Democratic voters that the current Democratic leadership is ineffectual."

Let's Burn Up the Phone Wires

WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATE: I regret to reveal that this morning's Albuquerque Journal reports that Senator Bingaman still hasn't made up his mind on how he will vote on Alito. Can you imagine? What is he thinking? What is he pondering? I can't imagine any real Democrat supporting this dangerous, radical ideologue but apparently Senator Bingaman is operating on a different wavelength than other Democrats and most every editorial page of note.

Filibuster Alito:

Bingaman's DC Office

Phone Number is 202.224.5521

Senator Patrick Leahy says:

"This is a nomination that I fear threatens the fundamental rights and liberties of all Americans now and for generations to come. This President is in the midst of a radical realignment of the powers of the government and its intrusiveness into the private lives of Americans. This nomination is part of that plan. I am concerned that if confirmed this nominee will further erode the checks and balances that have protected our constitutional rights for more than 200 years. This is a critical nomination, one that can tip the balance on the Supreme Court radically away from constitutional checks and balances and the protection of Americans' fundamental rights."

Daily Kos has the latest on Dem opposition to Alito here and here.

Urge Alito Filibuster to Mark 33rd Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

(Click image for more info on Blog for Choice)

Today marks the 33rd anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, which ruled that the relationship between a woman and her doctor was a private affair, not subject to governmental interference. We all know how at risk privacy freedoms are as the right wing continues its assault on reproductive freedom and Senate Democrats consider the merits of a filibuster of Samuel Alito's appointment to the Supreme Court.

As part of the National Organization for Women's observance of the Roe v. Wade anniversary, supporters are being asked to call their Senators to urge a no vote against Alito and a filibuster to stop his appointment. Plan to make your calls on Monday, during regular office hours, to either the local or Washington offices of your Senators.

Click for phone numbers for Senator Jeff Bingaman.

Click for phone numbers for Senator Pete Domenici.

According to NOW, here's the problem if Senators offer a no vote without a filibuster:

In constituent visits, and to the national press, Senators are starting to say that they will vote NO on his confirmation, but some are not yet agreeing to filibuster the nomination.

Here's the problem: Due to the current balance of power in the Senate (55 Republicans, 44 Democrats), we do not have the necessary 51 "no" votes to defeat Alito outright. So the only way for senators to block confirmation is for them to launch a filibuster - which can only be ended if 60 of the 100 senators vote to stop the filibuster and proceed to a vote on the nomination. In other words, IF there is a filibuster, 41 senators can block the nomination. But without a filibuster, those same 41 votes would not be sufficient to stop Alito.So "no" votes are meaningless in terms of the final outcome, unless there is a filibuster.

Go ahead, make those calls. And then donate a few bucks to an organization like NARAL or Planned Parenthood to support the important work of perserving our reproductive freedoms.

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