Reply #8: The threats that confront us in the present

[cali]

are, by their very nature, scarier than past threats, whether they're actually more significant or not. Of course it will be hard to turn things around, but that doesn't mean that it can't be done. We'll see whether or not the voting's hopelessly compromised in November. 2004 was inconclusive. Sorry, but I can easily believe that more people voted for bushco than Kerry. It's pretty clear they don't have the entire government as firmly as you state. If they did, you wouldn't have so many leaks or the number of ex-officials and military speaking out against the admin. This administration is massively unpopular. That hinders their ability to get things through and makes it more difficult for them to get away with power grabbing.

As far as the retirement of Justice Stevens goes, it's my understanding that he's pretty hale and hearty- plays singles tennis 3x a week. I doubt he's going to retire. In addition, we stand a good chance of picking up Senate seats in PA, MN, ND and a couple of other states. None of the dem Senators seem to be in serious jepordy. Even if we only pick up 2 or 3, bushco will have a terribly hard time pushing through a wingnut like Alito if we do see a retirement.