TIME FOR A FILLIBUSTER SAYS EMK AND JFK
WILL HAMAS NEGOTIATE?
BBC WORLD COMING TO THE USA

Can Sam Alito’s nomination be stopped? Can a Democratic filibuster get off the ground? If so will it be effective? Many Democrats fear it will backfire and be used by the Republicans in a campaign to discredit the Dems for “politicizing the process” as if it has not been politicized already. A comment in the Wall Street Journal suggested that Alito cannot be stopped and that the whole nomination represents “Ed Meese’s revenge.” Meese was Attorney General under Reagan.

A Battle is Brewing

You can still share your opinion with your Senator. It’s a toll free call: 888-355-3588 or 888-818-6641.

CNN reported last night that “John Kerry will attempt a filibuster to stop Judge Samuel Alito becoming a Supreme Court justice. “Judge Alito’s confirmation would be an ideological coup on the Supreme Court,” Kerry said…The filibuster effectively extends debate to block a vote, but Republicans believe they will have enough votes to prevent a filibuster.<.blockquote>

Democratic activists and Kerry supporters had been pressuring the 2004 Democratic Presidential contender to honor a commitment he made back in June 2003 2 when he pledged:

“I am prepared to filibuster, if necessary, any Supreme Court nominee who would turn back the clock on a woman’s right to choose or the constitutional right to privacy, on civil rights and individual liberties and on the laws protecting workers and the environment. The test is basic — any person who thinks it’s his or her job to push an extreme political agenda rather than to interpret the law should not be a Supreme Court justice.”

SPIRIT OF MASACHUSETTS

Senator Ted Kennedy issued this statement of support:

”Other than voting to send our men and women to war, there is no more important vote in the Senate than our vote on a Supreme Court nominee. This is a vote of a generation and a test of conscience. Judge Alito does not share the values of equality and justice that make this country strong. He does not deserve a place on the highest court of the land.

“We owe it to future generations of Americans to oppose this nomination. If Judge Alito is confirmed, he will serve on the court long after President Bush leaves office, and the progress of half a century on the basic rights of all Americans is likely to be rolled back. Heís the wrong Justice for justice and the rule of law in America. “

CAN THE HAMAS VICTORY LEAD TO NEW PEACE TALKS?

Hamas is now under world pressure to disarm. Here’s A Middle East View from the Daily Star, a leading newspaper in the region:

“Hamas: A reality Israelis, Americans and Europeans will have to accept”

”In one of the most free and fair elections in the Arab world, and with a remarkably high turnout, Palestinian voters altered the political map of the Middle East. The result of their democratic undertaking is that Hamas will soon begin the task of forming a new Palestinian government.”

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?article_ID=21750&categ_ID=17&edition_id=10

Rabbi Michael Lerner editor of Tikkun believes the election could lead to peace talks:

”Just as the election of previously Israeli terrorists Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir and Ariel Sharon set the backdrop for the possibility of peace negotiations with Israel’s enemies in the past thirty years, the election of the murderous terrorists of Hamas may ultimately make it more likely that a peace agreement entered into by a Hamas dominated government would actually amount to something lasting and substantial.”

Tikkun.org

LONDON’S FINANCIAL TIMES SPEAKS OF “STRATEGIC SHIFT”

Judging by the rhetoric on all sides, it doesn’t appear that Israel and Hamas will talk any time soon, if ever. Yet the Financial Times carried a report suggesting that Hamas’s hard line against recognizing Israel is already mellowing:

”Hamas leaders suggested that their participation in the elections marked a ’strategic shift’ that could eventually lead to talks with Israel. Mohammad Abu Tir, who is number two on the Hamas electoral list, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently: “We’ll negotiate [with Israel] better than the others, who negotiated for 10 years and achieved nothing.”

“In its election manifesto, Hamas omitted any reference to the call in its founding charter for the destruction of Israel and the group has not claimed involvement in any terrorist attacks in Israel during the past year. But its leaders have made clear that the group is not willing to disarm, which is Israel’s pre-condition for agreeing to talks.

“During the election campaign, Ismail Haniyeh, number one on the Hamas slate, is reported to have reiterated the party’s commitment to destroying Israel and capturing the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s third-holiest site.

“He said in an interview before the Gaza withdrawal that “Hamas is always at the service of the people and works only to eliminate the occupation. Our resistance always flows in that direction.”

ANOTHER VIEW: HAMAS WIN SHATTERS STATUS QUO
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0127/p01s03-wome.htm

The New York Times reports today: “Israel will most likely pursue unilateral actions, drawing its own borders and separating itself from the Palestinians.”

ON THE HOME FRONT

AP: $337 Billion Deficit Projected for 2006: Congressional Budget Office Warns Tax Cuts, War Likely to Push Figure Higher

WASHINGTON (Jan. 26) - The budget deficit will rise to at least $337 billion this year and may well approach or exceed $400 billion because of tax cuts and new spending for hurricane relief and the war in Iraq, congressional budget analysts said Thursday.”

US Army War College: “WE HAVE ENTERED AN AGE OF CONSTANT CONFLICT…WE WILL WIN’

”We are entering a new American century, in which we will become still wealthier, culturally more lethal, and increasingly powerful. We will excite hatreds without precedent. There will be no peace. At any given moment for the rest of our lifetimes, there will be multiple conflicts in mutating forms around the globe. The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. To those ends, we will do a fair amount of killing”.

http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/97summer/peters.htm

LONG WAR?

“This generation of service members will be in what we’re calling the Long War,” the general said. “Our estimate is that for at least the next 20 years, part of our focus will be on how do we deal with the extremist networks that will continue to threaten [SIC] the United States and its allies.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11663.htm

U.S. invasion responsible deaths of over 250,000 civilians in Iraq

“New studies make the Bush administration’s “liberation” argument for a ‘pre-emptive’ war against Iraq seem questionable.”

http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Iraq_war.php

Two German Engineers have been kidnapped in Iraq according to a video shown on Al Jazeera.