100th posting on Antoine Clarke's Election Watch

This is my one hundredth posting on Antoine Clarke's Election Watch. I'm writing this from Chillicothe, Ohio where I'm spending the week. I was going to do a round-up from the forty or so clipping I've amassed in the past week on Newsgator, but I'll leave that for the next posting.

I also watched my first ever U.S. Senate debate and vote yesterday evening: the cloture vote (a "guillotine vote" in the U.K.) on the debate over nominating Judge Samuel A. Alito as a member of the U.S. Supreme Court (roll call here). I think this is the most important democratic event in 2006, given the power that the U.S. Supreme Court has to overturn the law, and decide on disputed elections. The vote seemed to take ages longer than necessary, over half an hour, probably more than 45 minutes.

Although I probably support many of Mr Alito's views, I can certainly understand the Democratic Party's activist position that they should delay and filibuster all they can. The lines of Dylan Thomas spring to mind:

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I would have challenged the quorum, as often as permitted under Senate rules (you get two supporting Senators to walk in and out during the count to confuse matters, I mean come on, do you guys need lessons?). I'd have demanded a recount (for example a Senator keeps saying "aye", "nay" and walks out), asked for the vote to be delayed because a Senator was injured in a car crash in Nevada. Someone should have pressed the Fire Alarm. Activists should have stormed the Chamber, pretending to be anti-abortionists shouting that Mr Alito was going-to "sell-out", someone should have tossed glue into the hair of Senator Dole. Someone should have got a public endorsement for Mr Alito from Al Jazeera.

Instead Senator Kerry made a scaremongering speech that was three months too late and Senator Kennedy made a screech that will be described as "passionate" but which I though was rambling in content. The Reverend Doctor Ian Paisley, would have done it sooo much better. There's something to be said for fire and brimstone preachers: they can make it sound like the Earth is going to open up and swallow us all.

I mean, this is it. The Supreme Court is now lost to liberalism until either John Roberts discovers his feminine side or Clarence Thomas retires and there's a liberal U.S. President. Worst case scenario: it could be decades away. Imagine if a couple more liberals leave the Supreme Court and President Bush packs two more conservatives in? Roe vs. Wade? At least the states can decide and a trip to California, Massachusetts or New York won't be a huge financial constraint. We're talking challenges to any gun control, federal anti-discrimination laws, election laws as we know them, even the Social Security system.

It has taken a while to reach the century mark (I started on July 13 2004), and I intend that the 200th posting will be during 2006.

Most of my readers seem to come my way from searches for "Canadian election polls" or "Palestinian authority election". It's always great to be near the top of a search for such general news stories. I guess it also means that I'm not good at getting into other sites' blogrolls, many people's news aggregators or in the frequently accessed part of "my favourites" tool on browsers.