From the Tampa Tribune, a monastery's bank account was frozen without warning or explanation:

The sisters say the monastery's main bank account was frozen without explanation in November, creating financial headaches and making the Benedictine nuns hopping mad. They were told the Patriot Act was the cause.

"I think the Patriot Act is unwise, let's say, and that if it happened to us, it can happen to anybody," said Sister Jean Abbott, the monastery's business manager. "I think people need to know that nobody is safe from, in some cases, really ridiculous scrutiny."

Feingold just pretty much kicked some serious booty.  He's addressed executive privilege, Bill of Rights, death penalty, 4th amendment, individual rights and liberties, recusal, Roe vs. Wade, integrity.  

Biden just left and Graham is touting party line now.  He's saying it's only about Roe vs. Wade.  

I thought I would start an open thread for anyone else watching this.

Tune in at C-SPAN.

Please don't post graphics so we don't slow down load time for dial-up users.

Raw Story led me to today's  Robert Novak column titled Filibuster Alito?.  It's short and oh so sweet - basically, there are enough opposing votes to prevent cloture, so the pressure is on to filibuster:

That means the number of senators voting "no" will be well over the 41 needed to prevent cloture. Pressure groups then could ask why no filibuster had been launched. But Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid may not want to risk causing Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist to set a precedent by using the "nuclear" option: to end a filibuster by simple majority vote.

My jaw hit the floor when I realized that someone other than the NSA may actually be attending to the letters, emails, calls and faxes we've been sending about Alito.  OMG - this republic may still work despite it all!  SWEET.  Let's keep the pressure on this week.

This article was posted from AP this morning: Democrats Try to Slow Alito Confirmation.  It appears that Reid, may the gods bless him, is trying to buy us an extra week to get our collective acts together and better organize to oppose ScAlito.

Democrats argue that the former Reagan administration lawyer is likely to tip the court's balance to the right in replacing centrist Sandra Day O'Connor. But with little success so far peeling away Alito's support to be the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice, the Democrats were noncommittal about trying to mount a filibuster on the Senate floor.

Instead, they are seeking to slow Alito's ascension by demanding that the Judiciary Committee's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., delay the panel's vote a week.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid "is urging all Democrats to refrain from committing to a vote either for or against confirmation prior to the caucus next Wednesday," Reid spokesman Jim Manley said.

more below the fold...  

Some of you may remember the $50 billion in cuts to vital services that passed as part a budget reconciliation bill in the House before the Thanksgiving break.  (This so-called budget also allows for the wholesale of public lands through some weird patenting, pro-mining scheme, inserted and buried by my own favorite nimrod, Reprehensible... er... Rep. Pombo, but that's for another diary.)

The reps-that-be were savvy enough not to vote on the proposed $70 billion in tax cuts that are part of this same budget package until after the Thanksgiving break, seemingly so that the public's attention span, or lack-there-of, would let them push through the 2nd half of this bill while everybody was out decorating and shopping for the holidays.  Apparently not a bad move as the other shoe started to drop yesterday when the House overwhelmingly approved $94.5 billion in tax cuts and that doesn't even include the original proposed $50 billion in tax cut extensions for the wealthiest 1%, which will be voted on TODAY.

more below the fold or jump to the Action Alert...

brought to you courtsey of no-bid Pentagon contractors.  Helps to explain why Iraq is costing so much and yet our troops are so tragically under-protected, buying their own armour and getting charged for equipment losses.

Found the following tidbit about military spending practices via Raw Story:

More bad press for Halliburton...

The Houston Chronicle has the following AP story for us:

NEW ORLEANS - Agents detained about 100 illegal immigrants working for a Halliburton subcontractor hired to do Hurricane Katrina recovery work, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu's office said Thursday.

This won't fly too well in Peorioa, I would guess:-)