Free Republic

http://shapeofdays.typepad.com/the_shape_of_days/2004/09/the_ibm_selectr.html

as long as I spelled his blogs name wrong so many times, The least I can do is directly link to the post I was referring to.

ShaPe of days. I have a mental block with this name for some reason. shaPe of days.

Sorry. Had the name of the blog wrong. It was shade of days.

http://shapeofdays.typepad.com/the_shape_of_days/

He contacted the maintainer of the selectric composer website and had him try and reproduce the memos using it because so much of the left is in a tizzy over this machine. The guy talks about how hard it is to center text while using a proportional font because you have to know EXACTLY what spacing is in each letter. But the header would be something that Killian would have to type a lot and it was THEORETICALLY possible that he figured it out and just always used that same spacing. Or even that he did it perfect once (not just perfect to the eye, perfect to the level of mircosoft) and just xeroxed it and used it over and over. But if it is still perfectly centered even with the superscript th that is going to remove a couple more of the left talking points. I already emailed him a couple minutes ago on this one.

by the way guys, the new June 24th memo has centered text with a superscript th in the squadron name. Based on the work the shade of days guy did, this could be pretty decisive. The spacing would be different for a typewriter and would be harder to center. Of course word with center this perfectly and if this new memo matches up to word that is really going to go a long way towards once and for all saying the selectric composer couldn't have done these.

If Jindal can win this race at age 32 with his resume he could be a Superstar nationally for us in the coming years. The guy is a solid conservative and is brilliant.

Blanco has a million more dollars in the bank than Jindal does at this point so we need to do what we can to help this guy out. You know that Democrats are going to have a massive last minute push like they did for Landrieu last year.

PLEASE go donate 25 dollars to this campaign. If he can get some national money in at the last minute it really could push him over the top. Blanco on the other hand doesn't even have a way to donate to the campaign through her website. Lets let everyone see the power that Free Republic can have on this election!! Seeing Jindal win will be much more rewarding knowing that you helped make it happen.

http://www.bobbyjindal.com/online_hq/contribute.htm

seriously- we need to keep the momentum going. Louisiana is a tight race and sweeping all 3 governorships would send a big message. Plus- Bobby Jindal is a potential Republican Superstar if he can become Governor at age 32 with his incredible resume.

Everyone go to www.bobbyjindal.com and donate 25 dollars to his campaign for a last minute push. Getting donations from all over the nation would be a real boost for Jindal at this point. Lets use the power of Free republic to make a difference!

I am OK with Calling them Illegal immigrant instead of illegal alien. Once you go to undocumented workers I have a problem. What do you call them if they are unemployed?

If they go the course they are- and Estrada gets nominated with 20% of the democrats voting for him he would be awfully hard to stop if he were ever nominated to the supreme court. By then he would have 2 years of appellate judging- giving him a paper trail and proving that he isn't an ideologue. If they get him in through the 24/7 "technicality" that sort of sits over him as a judge. Its better to get him in with 60 votes. If that turns out not to be possible shove him down the dems throats with 24/7 but that certainly should be plan B.

Trying it this way doesn't mean we can't go 24/7 later. I think that more moderate dems aren't in this for the long haul. They wanted to hold up one cloture vote for their base and now people will start falling off. Graham will be the next to go. We already have 10% of the dems on our side, might as well see if another 10% will come over after they made their stand. Going 24/7 is always an option for the future but there still isn't a need now.

what about Lieberman?

What did Bob Graham vote?

WRITE FAX AND CALL NOW. RIGHT NOW. The dems who were on the fence need an immediate and severe reprocussion from this. They need to feel a tangible difference at their offices from this morning to this afternoon. The only way to win on this is to build up huge political pressure for this partisan position. DO IT NOW.

I am fairly certain that you need 60 votes to get cloture- not 60% of the votes cast. Can the moderate Dems just abstain from the vote to avoid a backlash?

The only problem I see with this is that once the democrats are on record as being for the Fillibuster, it will take a lot more effort to make them change their minds if they are willing to withstand the initial fury. The last democrat that votes for cloture is going to get a whole lot of his base really pissed off at him. But right now we have 10% of the democrats who are already supporting Estrada. Only the most partisan dems are opposing him and this is evident by the editorials the newspapers around the nation have written. 66 editorial boards support cloture and only 8 support the fillibuster. http://rpc.senate.gov/releases/2003/Editorialchart2.htm

Democrats think that they can get away with this because average voters don't pay much attention to stuff like this. Its our job to make them know that lots of people are paying close attention

OK... while a fillibuster is going why would the democrats be able to keep only a handful around? If at any point they had less than 40% of the republicans, the republicans could vote on cloture right? If we have 60% the vote passes and estrada gets his vote. You need to give 2 days notice in filing cloture, but once it has been filed a vote can be taken at any time right?

I am talking about under the current senate rules. I don't think that they have to amend them to get Estrada passed. I really don't think that all that many dems would be willing to stand up for 8 hours straight opposing estrada. I think that 20 is a worst case scenario. Even if they averaged 8 hours Estrada would be assured a vote in 2 weeks if the republicans are willing to have enough members in the senate that entire time. Actually- I don't think that it would take nearly that long because if we just didn't allow adjournment after a day like today, most of the dems who are adamantly against estrada have already spoken at least once so that would be half of their allotted time. Because there are no amendments possible it would be inevitable that Estrada got a vote and moderate dems would want no part of standing up and holding up debate ESPECIALLY IF THERE IS A WAR ON. The big weakness the dems have on this is that there are only a few that are truly passionate about taking a stand this time. Its time to take advantage of that

Ok... so while a 24/7 fillibuster is going on, the democrats need to make sure that they always have 40% of the current senators there (to make sure the republicans can't get cloture). The republicans need to make sure that at least 50 total senators are there (to have a quorum)- and that they always have at least 50% of the attending senators (to make sure estrada doesn't get tabled).

Does that line up with what your thinking on the subject is?

I'm not a lawyer but I follow the law somewhat closely. I beleive that the case Estrada won delcared that groups such as the abortion protestors could be prosecuted under RICO. The recent case said that there had to be actual damages and not just potential damages for the case to be successful. 2 issues on one sticky case.

Estrada took the position that he was asked to by the DOJ and defended it effectively. I wasn't throwing it out there that he was another Souter- but that he is willing to put aside his personal views when he needs to. Thats the problem that the democrats say that Estrada has and the fact he defended NOW would seem to blow that out of the water. Sorry for the confusion.

I assume this has been posted on free republic many times, but its still a good reminder of just how well the repubs have been doing on public perception of this issue. here is the listing of all the newspapers that have taken an editorial stand on this one way or the other. 66 in favor of estrada, 8 against. Only extremely partisan democrats understand agree with their opposition to this. Keep this going... its a winning issue.

http://rpc.senate.gov/releases/2003/Editorialchart2.htm