Kerry's office has confirmed the Senator's intent to block Samuel Alito's nomination to SCOTUS by extending debate.

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UPDATE - The Democrats do not have to show a full 41 votes to slow this train down. The burden is on Bill Frist to round up 60 affirmative votes to proceed to confirm a nominee. The magic number is 60, not 41. Nearly all recent judicial nominees, for lower court and SCOTUS, gained this level of support, either for cloture or for the actual nomination. It is quite rare for a court nominee to prevail with less than 60 "yeas."   If some Democrats would rather abstain than vote no for cloture, then let Frist pull together a bipartisan consensus for this nominee, as many prior appointees have needed in the past.

Action Item:  Recommend constituents work on bolstering support and recruiting a member of the Gang of 14 to join in on the filibuster, such as Inouye, Pryor, and possibly Joe Lieberman (as remote as the likelihood may be for Joe L.) Salazar has already declined, as of Wednesday. A delay of this nominee is warranted at least until we find out how the President's agencies were spying on ordinary non-terrorist citizens.   (And why did the IRS last year start collecting party ID data on taxpayers?! An outrage!!)    Vote no or "present," do not vote yes for cloture.

John Kerry has a new anti-Alito petition and will be entering the gathered signatures into the Congressional Record!  Please sign it and share it far and wide.

Dear Friend,

I've studied Judge Alito's legal record. I met with him one-on-one. After all this, I am left with one simple conclusion: if Judge Alito becomes Supreme Court Justice Alito, he will move the Court backwards.

I will vote against Judge Alito's confirmation, and I hope a majority of Senators choose to join us on the Senate floor, voting and speaking out against him. I know we face tough odds, but this is an important fight.

The bottom line is Judge Alito cannot be trusted on the Supreme Court. We can't trust him to stand up to government abuse of power. We can't trust him to ensure all citizens enjoy equal protection under the law. We can't trust him to protect our right to privacy. We can't trust him to defend mainstream American values.

To muster enough Senators to defeat Judge Alito, the American people have to make it clear that they are against his nomination. That's where you come in. By speaking out, you will help us convince other Senators to join our fight.

We can do this! Be sure to also check out SusanHu's great diary about some Senators who need that extra nudge to do the right thing.

As some of you might know, Sen. John Kerry began posting over at the Big Orange yesterday. Following a response of 1100+ comments, he posited a brief thank you diary today, invited us to watch him on tomorrow's This Week, and even answered a few comments.

One of the comments he carefully and thoughtfully answered in length was regarding a subject near and dear to my heart: PTSD/returning veteran care issues:

Thank you for your service to our country (4.00 / 18)

I'm worried for our returning soldiers suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder.

With our national budget in disarray, I'm worried that we're not providing the very best treatment for all of our wounded -- both those with physical and psychological scars received in battle.

I have been doing what I can from my humble position to bring more attention to this matter. Please, sir, can you speak out more on this issue?

Thank you!

His reply and PTSD Resources below the fold...

james webb, former navy secretary under reagan, in today's nyt...

   Military people past and present have good reason to wonder if the current administration truly values their service beyond its immediate effect on its battlefield of choice.     Military people past and present have good reason to wonder if the current administration truly values their service beyond its immediate effect on its battlefield of choice.

With their smear of Congressman John Murtha, including a hysterical attack by Congressman Jean Schmidt calling him a coward, and the GOP House Leadership writing a bill requiring Bush to leave Iraqi immediately and portraying it as Murtha's bill, the Republican Party continues their brand of lies, hatred, smears, and political opportunism. Their smear of John Murtha shows that they appeal to the worst instincts in American culture by treating Murtha in a similar way that the segregationists treated Blacks in the Jim Crow era.

The expectations that the segregationists had for Blacks and the expectations that the Republicans have for military veterans are very similar. The segregationists expected Blacks to be quiet, not get too uppity, not make trouble for whitey, and stay on their end of the tracks. Blacks who didn't were regularly lynched; one writer I studied in college suggested that the White segregationists did so in order to show their sexual prowess.

Some of us who worked as moderators on the Kerry-Edwards blog at johnkerry.com have stayed in touch with John and Teresa. Teresa sent this message to us yesterday and asked us to share with others in the blogosphere.

From Teresa:

A year ago today, many of us were hoping that we would begin to change the course that America was on by electing my husband President of the United States. While we fell short of that goal, I wanted to use this occasion to thank you again.