For those of you in the SF Bay Area, you might want to check out Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom author Cory Doctorow tonight at The Booksmith on Haight and Cole in San Francisco at 7pm.

I'll be recording it, but I'm sure I won't get it up anytime soon...I'm just swamped!

Here's how to get there .

See you there!

Tomorrow's the day you'll need to contact your representatives to tell them to vote against Estrada.

Make sure the staffers know you're a constituent. Then urge your
Senators to:

"Please SUPPORT the filibuster to stop Miguel Estrada.
Please vote AGAINST cloture."

Please let us know you're making these important calls, at:

http://www.moveon.org/callmade2.html

.....

A recent New York Times story on the filibuster is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/12/politics/12ESTR.html

For more information on Estrada, there's a good fact sheet at:
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=7795

* For more information on filibusters, see our bulletin at:
http://www.moveon.org/moveonbulletin/bulletin11.html

Dear MoveOn member,

As we continue our Iraq campaign, we're also working to track the
most pressing domestic challenges from the Bush administration. While
Iraq is taking all the media focus, the right wing is using this
diversion to cover attacks on almost every front.

Tomorrow -- Thursday, March 6th -- our ability to withstand this
onslaught may come down to one crucial Senate vote. This vote
-- on the Miguel Estrada judicial nomination -- is widely seen as
a key moment defining whether the Democratic opposition can turn
back the worst of the right-wing initiatives.

The Senate will be voting on the filibuster* on the nomination of
Miguel Estrada to the D.C. appeals court. We need to support this
filibuster and the courageous Senators who are stepping forward
at this key moment. Please call your Senators *immediately* to make
your voice heard.

We've arranged a TOLL-FREE number for you to use. Please call it
twice to speak with both your Senators:

1-888-508-2974

If that number is busy, please call your Senators directly, at:

Senator Feinstein
DC Phone: 202-224-3841

Senator Boxer
DC Phone: 202-224-3553

Make sure the staffers know you're a constituent. Then urge your
Senators to:

"Please SUPPORT the filibuster to stop Miguel Estrada.
Please vote AGAINST cloture."

Please let us know you're making these important calls, at:

http://www.moveon.org/callmade2.html

Miguel Estrada is a stealth right-wing extremist who has never served
as a judge before, yet has been nominated by the White House to a seat
on America's second-highest court. He stonewalled the Senate during
his confirmation hearings last year, refusing to answer basic questions
about his legal & judicial philosophy. Estrada is widely thought to be
President Bush's top choice for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. His
silence on his views on the law is a direct challenge to all of us.

Calling Estrada's behavior "a new height of arrogance," Senators Tom
Daschle (D-SD) and Harry Reid (D-NV) have finally gotten their fellow
Democrats to take a unified stand on principle, and are rightly
refusing to allow Estrada's confirmation.

They have launched a filibuster -- a tactic of last resort that is a
minority party's only recourse to ensure that a narrow majority party
does not gain absolute power. It's a bold move. If the filibuster
holds, as it has for 3 weeks now, it will send a clear signal that the
right wing can not ram its radically unfair agenda through Congress.
If it fails, that will send the opposite, frightening message.

In effect, the Estrada filibuster is now our main line of defense
safeguarding the democracy we believe in and the society we want our
children to inherit. Republicans have just called for a "cloture" vote
-- an attempt to break the filibuster -- to take place this Thursday.

MoveOn members have played a huge part in making this filibuster
possible. For weeks, key Senators have been citing our thousands of
phone calls as a major force keeping the Democrats together. Even
today, they're talking about what a difference we're making.

Unity among Senators to maintain this filibuster is crucial. Please
call your Senators right now.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

--The MoveOn Team
Carrie, Eli, Joan, Peter, Wes, and Zack
March 5, 2003

P.S.:

A recent New York Times story on the filibuster is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/12/politics/12ESTR.html

For more information on Estrada, there's a good fact sheet at:
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=7795

* For more information on filibusters, see our bulletin at:
http://www.moveon.org/moveonbulletin/bulletin11.html
________________

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please visit our subscription management page at:
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Advisors warn Bush he faces "humiliating" defeat on UN resolution
By the staff at Capital Hill Blue.

"You will lose, Mr. President," Powell told Bush. "You will lose badly and the United States will be humiliated on the world stage."

Here is the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_1870.shtml

Last Updated: Mar 4th, 2003 - 23:00:40

1600 Pennsylvania
Advisors warn Bush he faces "humiliating" defeat on UN resolution
By CHB Staff
Mar 4, 2003, 06:22

Email this article
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Senior aides to President George W. Bush say he faces a humiliating defeat before the United Nations Security Council next week.

And signs emerged today that the U.S. may withdraw the resolution from security council consideration.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, fresh from his latest round of meetings with representatives of countries on the Security Council, delivered the bad news to Bush on Monday.

"You will lose, Mr. President," Powell told Bush. "You will lose badly and the United States will be humiliated on the world stage."

President Bush
Powell told Bush he has only four of the nine votes needed for approval of a second resolution. As a result, some White House advisors are now urging the President to back off his tough stance on war with Iraq and give UN weapons inspectors more time.

"We have no other choice," admits one Bush advisor. "We don't have the votes. We don't have the support."

Presidential spokesman Ari Fleisher, in today's press briefing, appeared to signal a U.S. retreat from demanding a vote next week, saying "the president has said he believes that a vote is desirable. It is not mandatory."

John Negroponte, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that while it is too early for the United States to withdraw the resolution, "we haven't crossed that bridge," Negroponte said.

Powell told Bush on Monday that Turkey's refusal to allow U.S. troops to stage at the country's border with Iraq doomed any chance of consensus at the UN.

"Many were watching Turkey," Powell told Bush. "Had they agreed, it might have helped us sway critical votes."

Powell met privately today with Mexico Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez to try and "parse" new language for the second resolution to satisfy a Mexican request to modify the text and extend the deadline for weapons inspections.

"It (the meeting) did not produce results," a Powell spokesman said afterwards.

Publicly, Powell is leaving the door open for the U.S. to withdraw the resolution, telling a German television interviewer: "At the start of next week we'll decide when, depending on what we have heard, we will vote on a resolution. It will be a difficult vote for the U.N. Security Council."

Some Bush aides now admit privately that the President, for all his tough talk, may have to back down and postpone his plans to invade Iraq in the near future, delaying any invasion until April or May at the earliest.

"The vote in Turkey fucked things up big time," grumbles one White House aide. "It pushes our timetable back. On the other hand, it might give us a chance to save face."

"Saving face" could mean backing away from a showdown with the UN Security Council next week and agreeing to let the weapons inspection process run its course.

"The arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed gives us some breathing room," says a Bush strategist. "We can concentrate on the favorable publicity generated by the arrest and the valuable intelligence we have gained from that event."

Mohammed, arrested in Pakistan, masterminded the 9-11 terrorist attacks. CIA agents found computer files, memos and other materials which pointed to plans for new attacks against the U.S.

"The prudent thing to do would be to let Iraq cool off on a back burner and concentrate on Mohammed," says Republican strategist Arnold Beckins. "Saddam isn't going anywhere. There's too much heat on him right now for him to pull something."

But a delay would not mean a war with Iraq is off. Most Bush strategists and Pentagon military planners agree that the U.S. will probably have to take military action sooner or later.

Right now, only the U.S., Britain and Spain favor immediate military action against Iraq. With most of the other allies lining up against the U.S., Bush faces both a diplomatic and public relations nightmare if he proceeds against Hussein without setting a proper public stage.

"We've always needed an exit strategy," admits a White House aide. "Circumstances have given us one. Perhaps we shouldn't ignore it."