Stand for Nothing and You'll Fall for Anything

some thoughts on the alito's appointment to the supreme court and the failed filibuster attempt by the democrats:

so only 32 of the senate's democrats were in favor of a filibuster.
as of this writing, i haven't reviewed the list of those who didn't vote for a filibuster, but i imagine most of them were the ones who were part of the gang of 14 who agreed to never filibuster except under extreme circumstances. well, the time for that exception has come and gone. a little foresight on their part would have been nice.

it's one thing to regret one's vote due to how it may affect one's seat politically. i argue it's a bigger regret to have a missed opportunity to save the country from an erosion of freedom. the freedoms that we are seeing fritter away are the very ones that are invoked when our government authorizes war or waxes patriotic on independence day. how anyone in washington or across the country can miss that sad irony is a tragic blindspot.

in a related note:
bush and the current crop of conservatives are allowing the terrorists to win by allowing this country to melt our freedoms from the inside out. it is so shortsighted to think by allowing spying and certain tenets of the partiot act, we are saving this country. we have a military to fight those fights. let them do their job when it's authorized. but don't give our freedoms away.

i think it can be argued that it's as bad as "negotiating with terrorists" (as in "we will not negotiate with terrorists" they are so fond of saying) in that the u.s. is in a way unilaterally allowing terrorists to dictate how we live. i do not advocate negotiating with terrorists, i want to make that clear. but his solution is on par with that as far as eroding what we have stood for all these years.

what's that famous saying?

"stand for nothing and you will fall for anything?"

well, don't look now, but we have lost our footing under the watch of bush and cheney and it will have dire long term consequences for our twilight years and the best years of our childrens' lives if the other branches of government and the people themselves do not put a check on this naked grab for power. the separation of powers was set up for just this kind of scenario.