First, thanks to all who recommended and comment on the For Justice – Day 1 DRAFT.
Kidspeak and Cedwyn’s edits were very helpful. And Man Eegee’s technical guidance was enormously valuable.
Connecticut Man 1 is working (maybe even all night) to set up a website to use for our diaries.
This is a draft to make it user easy. Any advice will be appreciated.
Some thoughts: I would like to offer a couple of variations of the diary for people to be able to choose, if I can.
There is no “right” way. Your involvement, sending something is what is most important.
Please feel free to amend, to adapt, to personalize this message.
Three groups to contact:
your senators, the Judiciary Committee, and your representatives
Diary for Day 1:
You should be very wary of Judge Samuel Alito. Perhaps afraid is more accurate.
Judge Samuel Alito does not respect the primary role of the Legislative branch of our government. Therefore, he should not be considered acceptable to any member of Congress, particularly true Conservatives, regardless of his opinions on other matters held dear.
Judge Alito is a threat to your role in the structure of our government. You practice the art of politicking, balancing constituents’ concerns and needs with those of our society as a whole. Legislation is challenged in court, as it should be when the interpretation of a law is in question. Judge Alito’s record suggests he is not a “strict constructionist” of the Constitution.
Norm Ornstein, of the prestigious American Enterprise Institute, has recognized the danger Judge Alito represents. In his article, “Judge Alito Doesn’t Show Congress Enough Deference,” Ornstein states:
[Supreme Court Justice John] Roberts respects Congress and its constitutional primacy; Alito shows serious signs that he does not…
…Roberts is a very conservative guy, and a strict constructionist — one who means it. He understands that Congress is the branch the framers set up in Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution. It is not coincidence that Article 1 is twice as long as Article II, which created the executive branch, and almost four times as long as Article III, which established the judiciary. Judges should bend over doubly and triply backward before overturning a Congressional statute, especially if it is clear that Congress acted carefully and deliberatively…
The court case that has Mr. Ornstein turning such a critical eye on Judge Alito is from 1996, “United States v Rybar.” This case involved a challenge to Congress’s right to regulate the possession or transfer of machine guns.
From Mr. Ornstein,
Congress had passed the law in a reasonable and deliberate fashion. A genuine practitioner of judicial restraint would have allowed them a wide enough berth to do so. Alito’s colleagues did just that. But Alito used his own logic to call for its overturn, arguing that the possession of machine guns by private individuals had no economic activity associated with it, and that no real evidence existed that private possession of guns increased crime in a way that affected commerce — and thus Congress had no right to regulate it. That kind of judicial reasoning often is referred to as reflecting the “Constitution in Exile.”
Whatever it is, it’s not judicial restraint.
In response to Alito’s opinion, the majority said, “Nothing in Lopez (an earlier Supreme Court case) requires either Congress or the Executive to play Show and Tell with the federal courts at the peril of invalidation of a Congressional statute.”
Mr. Ornstein’s final sentence is a caution to you,
Whatever else it does with Judge Alito at the confirmation hearings, the Senate needs to hold his feet to the fire on this larger issue of deference to the legislative branch.
Don’t let Judge Alito’s opinions on single issues distract you from the danger he presents to our nation’s Constitutional foundation. Reject his nomination and encourage your colleagues to do the same.
A Concerned Citizen and Registered Voter,
Here we go. Day one.
Will Connecticutman be posting your graphic and how will this seperate website work? Will all diaries be kept there as a group? If so that is a great idea that solves the problem of diaries sliding down the list too fast.
Thanks again!
You’re kidding right AP?
You did all the work. Now stand still, reach around and pat yourself on the back :o)
I insist!
links for images:
Tampopo’s original image:
<img src=”http://vault.rocktours.net/index_files/tampopo1.JPG”>
Tampopo’s image with white background:
<img src=”http://vault.rocktours.net/index_files/tampopo2.JPG”>
militarytracy’s image:
<img src=”http://vault.rocktours.net/index_files/militarytracy1.JPG”>
supersoling’s image:
<img src=”http://vault.rocktours.net/index_files/supersoling1.JPG”>
Those are the links you can use to put the images in diaries.
No offense BUT: You guys are nuts if you think I am going to build an entire website overnight!!! lol (Well, I could do it, but it would suck and it would shut down from the traffic, but I could… But I won’t!) lmao 😀
Thanks – I now recognize these.
Nah – we’re not nuts – more along the lines of a very young kid who thinks her/his dad or mom cold touch the moon if they wanted 🙂
Now, do I redo the whole diary with your link codes?
Do I leave them here and edit my diary?
If I edit, can I change the title to say DAY 1 Ready?
And can I edit and then update?
What do you think?
Edit the diary and try the various pics of the grim reaper, click on the preview and see which one you might like to use as the main one for the diary.
I am not certain how everything else will work.
(And I still haven’t started my diary! lol)
Oh yeah, and I haven’t a clue how and what to do with PDF files if anyone has any OR is making any? (I know you sent me one Tampopo, and I still have it. But you also have the JPG I converted of the same thing sooo…)
Where’s Man Eegee? LMAO
And who was going to work on an “introductory template” that would carry over from diary to diary?
Any FBC Hosts have a suggestion on a well written opening template that will tie each day together?
I am not sure how Connecticut Man1 is going to do this. (Surprise, surprise!)
The idea seems brilliant to me too – everything collected in one place.
I had e-mailed him my graphic whih he was able to post in the Draft edition of this.
Supersoling, my ideas on integrating my diary with your graphics seems rather questionable now, sort of like two kids messing with an electric socket!
I am going to wait to hear from Connecticut Man1.
BTW, can I edit the title of this if I go back in? I forgot to put Day 1!
I am really too weary to attempt much more in the way of technical things. I checked out making a PDF and thought, “Not tonight.”
I am really looking forward to reading what you and AP put together!
This is like passing the torch to the next set of runners – or a hot potato 🙂
So just forget my graphics. It’s really the letters themselves that matter anyway.
As for AP, she did the writing, not me. I’m just hanging around waiting for the scraps ;o).
It will work like this:
(I added text to yours because you were asking about it militarytracy… I can change it back or add whatever you want.)
Or this:
Or this:
Or this:
Sorry about taking my time getting these up!
I had to switch over my computer because I don’t have any of my web designing tools up on the other nor any of my links saved on the new one yet.
If you right click on properties you will be able to see the source. If you need them resized tell me.
I will have to check how much of my bandwidth the first day eats to know if I can carry all of it myself. I have a few sites already hosted on the domain.
If people have more stuff, don’t forget that nanette graciously offered to host some images and files as well.
Oh my goodness!
These are wonderful!!! And you got MilitaryTracy’s too!!
((((Connecticut Man1))))
Can you explain how this hosting would be done?
Do I need to send something? Do something?
Is it possible to offer at your hosting site:
How will people find this?
I keep pausing and going back to see what you have done – magnificent!
Would it be possible to host Day 1 letter & graphics till a given time (what is convenient for you?)? Then delete it and host the next day’s?
now if I can “use” you daily to change the scale words to fit the day I will be insanely happy. I love what you did with grim. I couldn’t have done it, I don’t know how to work the programs.
AP and Supersoling are focusing on the Family Leave Act.
We’ll have to see what they came up with exactly, but what immediately crossed my mind was “Families” on the downside and “Corporations” on the other.
“Grim” is soooo right!
Yes… But are those words ok, or do you have something specific?
I like Tampopo’s “Beware” theme more than what I added to your image but I thought I would make it a bit different just to have a different option.
I may also resize it since it is a bit big as it is. I can only go so small before the words become impossible to read though. lol
PS: I just opened it in “Paintbrush” and clicked on the little letter “A” tool on the left side tool bar to add text, resized The words, moved them where I wanted them, and then saved it. It is easy enough to do if you try. Certainly easier than actually drawing something like you or Tampopo did! lol
i love military tracy’s graphic – great way to encapsulate the implications of coburn’s remarks. but the grim reaper…i don’t know. a tad melodramatic, perhaps?
maybe something succinct and spiffy like:
constitutional math:
executive + judiciary + legislative = balance of power in government
alito math:
executive + judiciary – legislative = “government”
or some such
also, the scale is backwards from the point being made – the executive would be weighed at the higher level, legislative below it.
I am just going to host pics and files. The diaries will be the important message. Most web sites could not handle 12 days of Kossacks clicking into them… And mine is one of them. Have you heared of the term being “Kossed” before? lol
I can host the images and files. You can link the pics into the diaries and people can download the files from links.
If there are more things I need for the first day you better get them to me fast though. I am trying to add them as you all put them up in the diaries here, and then I upload them to my site.
Hey there! I need to edit my draft, but for intents and purposes, it’s done (age discrimination/FMLA–I swear, this man’s a bastard).
Should I post my letter as diary and proceed from there? Please let me know. And many thanks to Supersoling for his help and to ConnecticutMan1 whose style I “borrowed.”
This is really a fantastic idea and I’m so glad to play a small part! Cheers!
Thanks.”Small part” indeed – ha!
(JanetStrange has a wonderful sig line from Edmund Burke about small part. I will have to find it in the other diary.)
As to posting now or tomorrow…if you want comments and suggestions, consider posting it as “For Justice: DAY2 DRAFT” and giving others tme to see it and for you to revise if you wish.
(I forgot to put Day 1 in this diary and it might get confusing for people. I think it would be helpful to put the date in the letter.)
The outlined plan was to post the Day’s diary the night before. That way, anyone writing from the west coast would be posting in time for those on the east coast to get it in the morning. And the east coasters can begin recommending to keep it in sight.
Connecticut Man1 may have different instructions when he does his magic.
check your diary tampopo!
Excellent letter, Tampopo. This should work very well!
a note on contacting the judiciary committee, especially if we follow up with phone calls at all.
feel completely, 100% free to contact them and any other house/senate committees, even though your senators might not sit on them. You can’t help the fact that your Senators aren’t members of the committee. but it is, nonetheless, the United States House of Representatives Judiciary (or whatever) Committee. which means that it is your, and every other American’s, Judiciary Committee. It’s not like the committe members’ respective states are the only ones affected by that committee’s decisions.
if i’m feeling really snarky, i’ll be all “oh…i’m sorry. i didn’t realize sen. so and so was a X state senator; i thought he/she was a united states senator.”
: p
Do we have a list of the members of the judiciary committee?
That way we know the one’s that everybody should contact beyond their own Senator or Rep. (I know the Reps have nothing to do with this, but I will pester mine in the hopes they pressure the Senate.)
It’s in the link in the diary.
My computer is getting all flicky and telling me I have “low” memory (as if I didn’t know!)
I am going to redo the diary and offer the three graphics in the comments.
When it is up, please Unrecommend this – thanks again sooo much.
We need the template that will carry over from diary to diary as well. I can’t wait to see the finished product!
How did Man Eegee and BostonJoe keep things so organized when they did this for OYF? (Or am I kidding myself, and they were going nuts trying to finish OYF at the last minute as well? lol)
C Man1 – I wanted to post the links to the images, just as you had provided here, but ended up just replicating the designs –
Could you please post the links just as you did here so people can access them if they wish.
Thank you.