Things you can do RIGHT NOW

At the request of Daily Kos, I'm posting the following action guidelines for making sure our voices are heard as Bush decides on his nominee to the Supreme Court:

• If you have a cell phone, sign up for People at the American Way's Mass Immediate Response site. This way you'll be able to receive text message action items instantly as events break. (If you signed up during the nuclear option fight, you'll need to re-sign up.)
• Also sign up with Save the Court, another PFAW website devoted specifically to this issue.
• Recruit friends and family members to the cause.
• Write to the President, telling him he should choose a consensus candidate to replace O'Connor. Contact your Senators to tell them the same thing.
• Sign MoveOn's "Protect Our Rights" petition.
• Contact members of the media and tell them you think Bush should nominate a consensus candidate. Please be polite, brief (200 words or less), and don't copy-and-paste -- put it in your own words.

Sandra Day O'Connor

beats William Rehnquist to the finish line. Statement from Bush in about a half hour, but apparently he won't name a replacement until he returns from the G8 next Friday at the soonest.

I don't think he can appoint the same person he's already got picked out to replace the Chief; an ultraconservative for an ultraconservative is one thing, but an ultraconservative for the Court's most important moderate and swing vote is something else entirely. Among many other ramifications, any nominee put forth who has the approval of James Dobson means that Roe will be, in short order, overturned.

Speaking for everyone on my side of the aisle, we cannot allow that to happen. So this will probably be the biggest battle of the summer (not to mention our lifetimes and that of our wives, sisters, and daughters).

So much for light blogging over the holiday ...

You know, this Live 8 is really going to be huge

I confess that I only paid attention a little when Bono succeeded in getting the developing nations' debt cancelled, but the Chronic has a rundown of the concerts:

On Saturday, stages in Philadelphia, London, Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Barrie (a city in Ontario, Canada), Moscow and Johannesburg will be joined by an estimated 1 million fans and 2 billion viewers. It's almost easier to list artists who are not playing on one of the stages than to name all who are involved.

Stateside, the bill at the Museum of Art in Philadelphia boasts Alicia Keys, Black Eyed Peas, Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band, Def Leppard, Destiny's Child, Jay-Z, Josh Groban, Kaiser Chiefs, Keith Urban, Linkin Park, Maroon 5, P. Diddy, Rob Thomas, Sarah McLachlan, Stevie Wonder and Toby Keith.

And that's just one city. U2, Coldplay, Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg, R.E.M., Pink Floyd, Elton John and Madonna are just a few of the artists playing elsewhere.

G8 leaders meeting in Scotland will -- maybe -- take note. Andrew will liveblog it (or at least take some pictures; Chris Bowers will be there also, but Annatopia is missing out). One.org has an action alert for us to click. And if all you want to do is watch the music, there's eight hours' worth on MTV starting at 11 a.m. CDT tomorrow and highlights on your ABC affiliate from 7-9.

Update (7/5): In the comments, Albert points out I got his name wrong. And Chris B.'s pictures turned out really good.

Light blogging ahead

during the holiday weekend.

Bush's speech was -- as expected -- a zero. I did notice that CNN and other MSM outlets seemed to have grown a pair in their coverage of it. Karl Rove and Dick Cheney have retreated to their undisclosed locations to plot their next attack on America's enemies (that would be the judiciary, the Senate, or the left in general but would not include Osama or al-Qaeda).

A calendar of progressive activist events coming in July has been posted at Houston Democrats and also the Democratic Underground.

Matthew Cooper -- as well as that douchebag of liberty, Robert Novak -- will probably avoid being jailed over the Plame affair, but it remains to be seen if Judith Miller will manage likewise.

Watch for one hell of a Friday afternoon document dump tomorrow.

This weekend at least, I think I'll stick to the chicken.

Slate

... handicaps the Justice horse race Luttig, Roberts, Garza. Of course it may yet be awhile before post time, as Rehnquist continues to hang on by his fingernails.

The most incredible news in that article -- from a dozen disconcerting things to choose -- has to be the news that Al "Abu Ghraib" Gonzales is considered by the Talibaptists too moderate a candidate to be submitted.

*insert head-banging-against-wall emoticon here*

Update (6/29): Kos has more, including speculation on O'Connor, as well as Harry Reid's suggestions on Supreme Court nominees from among his peers.

Update II (6/30): A pretty interesting story here about summer vacations and multi-million-dollar ad campaigns and lives placed on hold, waiting for the eventual Supreme Court vacancy.

Election Assessment Hearing here Weds. 6/29

On Thursday, June 30th, the (James A.) Baker -- (former Pres. Jimmy) Carter Commission on Federal Election Reform will hold their second and final hearing at the campus of Rice University.

The commission has already refused to hear the testimony of Rep. John Conyers, who of course headed a congressional subcommittee investigation into the voting irregularities with regard to the 2004 election in the state of Ohio. David Cobb, the Green Party's 2004 presidential candidate, was also denied the opportunity to testify about the problems he encountered with Ohio's electoral processes during the attempted recount. Other election process researchers, analysts, investigators and atorneys were likewise refused the chance to report their findings of problems with our election processes during the 2004 election.

In response to this apparent lack of interest on the part of the Baker-Carter Commission in surveying problems with election processes evidenced in the last election, and in order to provide state election officials with data which will help them make informed decisions, 51 Capital March, with the endorsement of BradBlog, CAEF, IPPN, J-30 Coalition, USCountVotes, VotersUnite and others, is sponsoring an Election Assessment Hearing to be held in Houston on June 29th, the day before the Baker-Carter Commission is scheduled to meet.

Here's the location and agenda, and this is the list of presenters, which include Cobb and Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org .

Update (7/1): DemoDonkey posts her report on the hearing here.