Good morning/Afternoon, everyone:
I feel the same way I did when despite our best fight back in 2004, Bush regained the White House. I felt like I'd been on a euphoric high, only to crash hard when the state of Ohio was declared for Bush, and Kerry trotted off to the ski slopes after reneiging on his promise to declare a recount, like the bourgeosie wimp he was framed to be.
The morning after the 2004 election, I was glumly getting ready for work, when a thought came to me that brightened my spirits and got me ready to crawl back into the trenches to fight again.
Please bear with me as a write this, because I hope in the end, you, too, will have reason to be hopeful.
Like I said, I was getting ready for work, thinking about the idiocy of 59 million people who voted their fear in re-selecting George W. Bush.
And, almost as if another person was in the room, a voice spoke and said: "He was allowed back in to have another chance to demonstrate that he is going to be 'Christ-like' in running the Federal Government. If he continues to call himself a Christian, and his operation doesn't reflect that, he will show himself to be a fool and the American people will fight back."
Almost immediately after taking the oath of office, Bush's world began crumbling.
Iraq.
Osama.
Medicare.
No Child Left Behind.
The Economy.
On a daily basis, we read or learned about Bush's actions which showed him to be a liar of the highest order. No weapons of Mass Destruction found. Osama still alive and releasing videos like Tupac. Medicare with a hole big enough that seniors can't get the medicines they need. Education in the toilet. And a salary of $75,000 or better no longer places you in the upper middle class, but categorizes you as "the working poor".
Today, Samuel Alito became the newest addition to the Supreme Court. Once again, Bush got his way.
Or did he?
Face it, if Robert Bork thought this guy shouldn't have passed confirmation, you know something's up. We just haven't found it yet. But it will show up at some point, probably when the wingnuts find an abortion case to railroad before the justices as a test case towards overturning ROE v. WADE.
The Religious Right gets their way, but consider this when their prayers get answered:
There will be such a bloody battle over ROE that this country will guarantee a Democratic majority in the Congress for years to come, because in getting rid of ROE, the GOP will have eliminated their main wedge issue. Not to mention the consequences there will be when women realize they no longer have the right to speak for their choice to reproduce or not.
It is speculated that the GOP doesn't really want to overturn ROE. Just continue making noises about it to win elections around the country, and scare religious nuts into voting for them, often against their best interests. They didn't think that Dubya would actually do what they asked: they thought he would be intelligent enough to understand that he's not really supposed to appoint a justice who would roll back civil rights and liberties, while crowning a King in a democratic government. Nod, Nod, Wink, Wink...but we don't really want to overturn ROE, reinstate school prayer, send Blacks back to the pre-Rosa Parks era.
Because, in order to do that, the GOP will have to be equally willing to ride herd openly, with the hoods and burning crosses and reinstate Jim Crow laws. They can't claim to be a party of inclusion while they're excluding the diversity of this Nation.
All of these are wedge issues. All of them would be gone under a Supreme Court with Alito on it. No more basis for a GOP opposition campaign against a Democrat. What, are they going to talk about how fiscally responsible they are?
Not with a tanking economy, jobs being outsourced, plunging the average worker into unemployment and further debt. Education? Not when you've voted to gut and cut Federal funding to Sallie Mae. Health Coverage? Not when Big Pharma is calling the shots and the elderly are sneaking into Canada like thieves to get medications they can't afford under the mess that is now Medicare.
But Sam Alito would have to do his dirt under the auspices of a Democratic Administration, and a Democratic Majority. Because when people wake up to what was really lost, not gained, all hell will break loose. Vichy Dems need to get ready for evisceration, while the Fighting Dems take the wheel. Moderate-to-liberal Republicans, whose voices have been silenced in an effort to politically protect themselves and their careers, will be able to stand boldly again. And anything this Supreme Court rules upon, a Democratic Congress can overturn with new legislation that passes Supreme Court muster.
I believe we will see a Supreme Court Justice impeached and removed from the Bench during my lifetime. Why? Yeah, I know, there's never been a Justice up for impeachment, but just because there's not been a valid reason for the need to call for articles of impeachment on a Supreme Court Justice, does not mean that it can't be done. And Sam Alito will be the first Jurist for the Test case.
Because at this point in time, the GOP believes itself to be invincible. That they can't be stopped.
However, because the laws of Nature demand balance, and because Karma's a royal bitch, when people, places and circumstances get out of balance, Nature demands balance be returned and restored. As a result of the feelings of invincibility, superiority, one-party domination, Bush is going to overreach, and it's going to go before the Supreme Court, where Alito is going to overreach, to the point that not even Clarence will stand with him.
Because the best and truly brightest will be driving the Wurlitzer this time.
"A justice can be impeached if he or she commits a crime or is found guilty of serious judicial misconduct..." Page 310, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Supreme Court.
So, should the following scenarios happen under a Democratic Congress, hopefully their staffs will do their homework and understand that no action is done that cannot be changed or reformed in order to meet the needs or circumstances of the people. Sam Alito's refusal to directly answer questions about his judicial positions, his written opinions, his political affiliations, will come back to bite him in the ass, when it comes down to a written judiciary opinion. He's going to be found on the wrong side of a controversial subject...and I think that the Supremes do care about what we, the public, think about their ability to be impartial, fair and uphold the Constitution. They know they allowed their partisanship to get in the way when they ruled in Bush v. Gore, and they don't want to get caught pissing in the wind again, like that, ever.
Martha-Ann Baumbgardner (Alito) will really have a reason to cry, when that scenario happens, but her tears will have no effect. Imagine how fighting Dems are going to feel when the Impeachment trial reaches them, especially the 42 Senators who voted their convictions (sorry, Senator Obama, but you don't fit this mold. You would have voted to confirm Alito if Illinois and Dick Durbin weren't watching you).
Keep the faith, and keep up the fight. We started out to win a war; a war against all ideals which made America great and respected. The ideals we, who love our country, want back.
And no Supreme Court Justice like Samuel Alito is going to take that away without a good, knock-down, drag-out fight.
We lost the Battle; but the war is not OVER.