Tomorrow's the day you'll need to contact your representatives to tell them to vote against Estrada.
Make sure the staffers know you're a constituent. Then urge your
Senators to:"Please SUPPORT the filibuster to stop Miguel Estrada.
Please vote AGAINST cloture."Please let us know you're making these important calls, at:
http://www.moveon.org/callmade2.html
.....
A recent New York Times story on the filibuster is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/12/politics/12ESTR.htmlFor more information on Estrada, there's a good fact sheet at:
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=7795* For more information on filibusters, see our bulletin at:
http://www.moveon.org/moveonbulletin/bulletin11.html
Dear MoveOn member,
As we continue our Iraq campaign, we're also working to track the
most pressing domestic challenges from the Bush administration. While
Iraq is taking all the media focus, the right wing is using this
diversion to cover attacks on almost every front.
Tomorrow -- Thursday, March 6th -- our ability to withstand this
onslaught may come down to one crucial Senate vote. This vote
-- on the Miguel Estrada judicial nomination -- is widely seen as
a key moment defining whether the Democratic opposition can turn
back the worst of the right-wing initiatives.
The Senate will be voting on the filibuster* on the nomination of
Miguel Estrada to the D.C. appeals court. We need to support this
filibuster and the courageous Senators who are stepping forward
at this key moment. Please call your Senators *immediately* to make
your voice heard.
We've arranged a TOLL-FREE number for you to use. Please call it
twice to speak with both your Senators:
1-888-508-2974
If that number is busy, please call your Senators directly, at:
Senator Feinstein
DC Phone: 202-224-3841
Senator Boxer
DC Phone: 202-224-3553
Make sure the staffers know you're a constituent. Then urge your
Senators to:
"Please SUPPORT the filibuster to stop Miguel Estrada.
Please vote AGAINST cloture."
Please let us know you're making these important calls, at:
http://www.moveon.org/callmade2.html
Miguel Estrada is a stealth right-wing extremist who has never served
as a judge before, yet has been nominated by the White House to a seat
on America's second-highest court. He stonewalled the Senate during
his confirmation hearings last year, refusing to answer basic questions
about his legal & judicial philosophy. Estrada is widely thought to be
President Bush's top choice for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. His
silence on his views on the law is a direct challenge to all of us.
Calling Estrada's behavior "a new height of arrogance," Senators Tom
Daschle (D-SD) and Harry Reid (D-NV) have finally gotten their fellow
Democrats to take a unified stand on principle, and are rightly
refusing to allow Estrada's confirmation.
They have launched a filibuster -- a tactic of last resort that is a
minority party's only recourse to ensure that a narrow majority party
does not gain absolute power. It's a bold move. If the filibuster
holds, as it has for 3 weeks now, it will send a clear signal that the
right wing can not ram its radically unfair agenda through Congress.
If it fails, that will send the opposite, frightening message.
In effect, the Estrada filibuster is now our main line of defense
safeguarding the democracy we believe in and the society we want our
children to inherit. Republicans have just called for a "cloture" vote
-- an attempt to break the filibuster -- to take place this Thursday.
MoveOn members have played a huge part in making this filibuster
possible. For weeks, key Senators have been citing our thousands of
phone calls as a major force keeping the Democrats together. Even
today, they're talking about what a difference we're making.
Unity among Senators to maintain this filibuster is crucial. Please
call your Senators right now.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
--The MoveOn Team
Carrie, Eli, Joan, Peter, Wes, and Zack
March 5, 2003
P.S.:
A recent New York Times story on the filibuster is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/12/politics/12ESTR.html
For more information on Estrada, there's a good fact sheet at:
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=7795
* For more information on filibusters, see our bulletin at:
http://www.moveon.org/moveonbulletin/bulletin11.html
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You people are very sad. I wish there were an easy way to have you exiled from this country. Your sentiments and "feelings" are the reason that the country has deteriorated to the point of having terrorists on our own soil. It is the bleeding heart liberal that doesn't want to "pick" on anyone that left our borders vulnerable and exposed to terror on September 11. I wish all of you would pack up and move. Perhaps all of you so called "peace" sympathizers could go over and live under the reign of terror of your friend Saddam Hussein. Something tells me your anti-American, unpatriotic tunes would change rather quickly.
It would be awesome to see you use your efforts to organize aid or do something useful for the citizens of Iraq when the time comes that our president will actually be able to free them from the monster that has oppressed them for so long.
I pray that God will help you all open your eyes.
Posted by: K Belcher on March 8, 2003 04:43 AMyou need to quit being so dismissive of other people's legitimate concerns. if you really wanted to be helpful you would detail for us exactly where we are going wrong,--instead of insulting us and then invoking the name of god.
it's called "charity." look it up.
Posted by: z.s. on March 8, 2003 05:42 PMThank God for moveon. As a lifelong reformer nearing age 70, In youth I smugly and so wrongly felt democracy in the USA was a progression. I believed enlightened self interest was universal and inevitably, civil rights would thus become universal , civil liberties expanded and a worldwide egalitarian peace would ensue, enabling
us all to enjoy life on earth.
I thought the greedy,selfish warmongers would be unmasked and the rest of us would work toward healthy longevity,excellence in public education communication,transportation.
Then since Kennedy's assassination I've seen a continuous deterioration of all of it.
The billionaires manage legislation to corner the world's resources and co-opt the minds of the majority by controlling the media.
moveon has been the only meaningful light and I bless you.
In Feb. I was so hopefully caught up into the ocean of likeminded New York area demonstrators that I cannot thank you all enough! The Belchers of this world (and he should say "excuse me" everytime he uses his name) should have a file of data sent him. He should learn history. He should see that terrorist entered this country and intend him harm because of the greed of the people he admires. The tough entrepreneurs he trusts to represent the USA, go worldwide and rob resources from struggling nations.
Our borders are insecure because in the greed of our domestic money-grubbers, desperate foreigners are allowed unchecked within our borders to provide labor so cheap as to displace our own citizens. Monies allocated for "homeland security" becomes increased salaries for Republican Party donors appointed to jobs in the new department.
BELCHER clearly misunderstands the USA structure and the Constitution as well. To speak of the desirability of " deportation" of those with whom he disagrees is the MOST UNAMERICAN utterance possible. Americans hear all information, all opinions and then vote. In a book called "Mein Kampf"(circa 1920?) a man named Adolf Hitler advocated deportation and in fact succeeded in managing many. I believe he would agree with Belcher but is perceived as unamerican even by the Immigration Service. That book and his deportations would disqualify him from entering the USA. I would ask therefore, if Belcher even qualifies as an Amercan given that he obviously doesn't endorse the Constitution. I can with full conviction, swear to uphold that entire document as interpreted by the court since let's say 1954.
How about him?
