What really matters in this election

[mikehiggins]

Looking at a VP pick because of what might or might not happen in 2012 seems to be missing the point.

We have to win THIS election, THIS year before we even get a chance to run somebody in 2012 or even 2008.

This isn't just a debate, folks, or a pleasant discussion. The entire future of this nation may well depend upon what happens this November.

As someone else said, the fight for freedom is never over; it just isn't lost yet. Four more years of this and our basic freedoms may very well be lost for generations, if not forever. Give Bush three new appointees to the Supreme Court and watch what happens to those pesky Amendments we like to call the Bill of Rights. Not to mention Roe v Wade, or even Brown v Board of Education or anything else you might want to think of as settled law.

The Democratic Party is demonstrating an amazing inability to face up to the challenge of this election. It is in the process of putting a man up against Bush that is almost comically the wrong guy. If putting Clark on the ticket helps get the guy elected, then that is where he should go.

All of the mechanations of the party pros and gurus and icons won't mean a thing if we lose in November. Reelect Bush and we'll be well on our way to an American Taliban regime and Hillary will become a footnote in history (if anyone is even allowed to write history books anymore).

The stakes are that harsh, and that real.

[salinen]

1. This is the most important

election in the history of mankind.

[HFishbine]

4. Mmm, more important than

Clay vs Ruben?

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Yes, indeed (eom)

[mikehiggins]

7. Only for people who believe in democracy and freedom

That is what is at stake here.

If we lose this election we can lose it all.

[VOX]

2. The federal district and circuit courts judgeships are also lifetimers...

And the * administration is nominating them by the bushel. (30 this past January.) If these go through, the laws of the land will be in the hands of the right wing for decades.

Voting is not therapy. It doesn't automatically make one feel good. It shouldn't be about the voter's vanity -- it's about salvaging our freedoms, which are fast vanishing.

Even with a Democratic victory in 2004, there is one hell of a mess to clean up.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Please listen to mikehiggins, DUers --

this is history here, this is a fight for the survival of the nation created by the guy who is my avatar, and others who were part of a period of Enlightenment and not gathering darkness. This is about government instituted among men (and women) deriving its power from the consent of the governed. Corporate, and military, control we have fought from our inception, and we must keep up that vigilant fight. But our ABILITY to fight against these elements, our ability to fight at all, our ability to speak and dissent, is at stake. Plenty of compromises were made in the tenuous days in which our country was founded. If we call ourselves patriots, in contrast to the false patriots in power, we can compromise, as individuals, now. Lose this one, and it all may be gone.

[jansu]

6. The most important part of this Presidential election is the Courts!

Supreme Court Justices are the Reason to Vote ABB (I posted this earlier, but I think we need to keep it in mind).

Last Presidential election cycle, 4 or 5 of the Justices said they would retire in the next 4 years, if a Republican won to appoint their
replacement. They made sure that this would happen. I expected that they would quickly leave and Bush would appoint the most extreme Judges.

None have quit. Did they have "buyers regret"? Also, only one Justice shows up for Bush's State of the Union addresses. This has never happened before.

We can not hope that they can all hold on for another 4 years of Bush's second (really first) term, (wonder if he would try for a third, stating that since he really didn't win the first time, he is entitled to another term...oops, the mind is getting weird thoughts). They are getting old, and even if they don't retire, they may well die or become disabled. Remember, several of the "Religious leaders" have prayer circles praying for the deaths of those who don't decide the way "they think" they should. Bush will appoint a Chief Justice and probably 3 or 4 others. Can you imagine what kind of judges he will appoint? The Democrats have done their best to stop his most extreme appointments to the lower courts, but they are not showing much of a backbone all around and this will be a long, dirty fight.

We must do our best to make sure ABB happens! And, we must also work hard to replace the members of the House and Senate, so that a Democratic President has the Congress which will work with him. And don't forget the Governors!

DEMOCRATS ACROSS THE NATION!

William H. Rehnquist, born: October 1, 1924...79 years old.

John Paul Stevens, born: April 20, 1920...83 years old.

Antonin Scalia, born: March 11, 1936...67 years old.

Sandra Day O'Connor, born: March 26, 1930...73 years old.

Anthony M. Kennedy, born: July 23, 1936...67 years old.

David Hackett Souter, born: September 17, 1939...64 years old.

Clarence Thomas, born: June 23, 1948...55 years old.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, born: March 15, 1933...70 years old.

Stephen G. Breyer, born: August 15, 1938...65 years old.