So I finally had it this morning at 7:40 am when Lester Holt was interviewing Tim Russert about the inevitability of the Samuel Alito confirmation. Tim said something to the effect that Alito didn't make any errors for the Democrats to capitalize on.
I experimented this week a bit with my media consumption. I purposely avoided reading the front section of the Washington Post, missed a whole week of Countdown and The Daily Show. Weaned myself from Air America.
Oh, and no Kos. Now THAT was tough.
My only consumption was CNN.com, morning shows and glimpses of the crawl screen at the bottom of the CNN or MSNBC newscast. We're force fed Fox in the lobby at work, so I got some of that too. So after a full-week of superficial consumption of "mainstream," or as I like to call it, "pack media" here are my conclusions about Judge Alito (might as well call him Judge, eh?)
- Sam Alito was under tough questioning.
- Congress made Mrs. Alito cry. Bad Congress!
- Sam's got an "open mind" on Abortion.
- Arlen Specter likes martinis.
OK...that last one, I read in the
Wa Po Style Section. And kudos to Mark Liebovich for using "spector" as both a proper noun and a regular noun in the same paragraph!
He seems to be an awfully nice guy. Thoughtful. Well spoken. Patient. Good temperment (ok...a pet dog is supposed to have a good temperment. Particularly around kids. Do I care if a judge throws law books around and uses profanity as long as he gets the decisions right? The Constitution said nothing about "temperment." When did that become so important?
So if all I ever consumed was regurgitated pablum from the "O'Brians in the morning" on CNN; Matt, Katie, Lester and Timmy on NBC; and whoever is writing that damned crawl text, I'm happily snoozing thinking all is right with my world.
So, don't cry to me when he undermines minority rights and women's rights, etc... I don't want to hear it.
Alito wrote on his resume for a federal job that he was opposed to abortion. Alito will get a yea vote from the so-called pro-choice Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Memo to Kate Michaelsman: Dear Kate, does NARAL plan to endorce Specter next time he's up for re-election? Just wondering. We'll be watching... Just don't cry to me in one of the fifteen e-mails you send to the Yahoo account I don't check. I don't want to hear it.
All the other members of the federal district court who sat with Alito and disagreed with his rulings time and again, one by one they came up to testify what a damned fine Justice he'd make. Can anyone besides Randi Rhodes say "conflict of interest"? Don't cry to me when he overturns your rulings. I don't want to hear it.
He's got a lot of catching up to do, you know. And anyway, y'all think he'll be a damned fine justice.
And lastly, to Matt, Katie, Timmy and whoever else reports the news out there in networkville. Don't come crying to me with your melodramatic reports on the overturning of Roe or the latest Supreme Court ruling that undermines individual rights. I don't want to hear it.
The time for drama is now. And all I get from you is zzzzzz.....everything is fine. Never you mind. Think, instead about tainted dog food, weight loss and Angelina's new baby.
No, don't even bother to tell me the bad news down the road.
All that's left for me to do is to hope and pray that Sam is a really nice guy and he really does have an open mind about abortion. I can only hope that now that he has nothing to prove to anyone now that he finally has a job that no one can take away from him. I can only hope that age and experience can reveal to him that focusing on the innocence of lives yet lived too conveniently keeps you from having to deal with lives already living.
I can only hope that with such job security, he searches the depths of his conscience to find some wisdom and compassion for the alive and breathing people who are powerless and weak. And I can only hope that now that he has this job for life, he will begin to appreciate how great this nation would be if we would only embrace the true potential of its citizens in their individual pursuit of life, liberty and happiness (I got that right out of the Constitution!) rather than exploiting their energies for the wealth of a few.
I gotta go. I got a lot of praying and hoping to do.