i went to bed at 10:30 last night. when i woke up this morning at 5:30, when the alarm clock went off, i looked over to the other side of the bed and moe wasn’t there. it’s not too uncommon for her to fall asleep in the recliner, so i got up and went into the living room to wake her up, but she wasn’t there either. now i’m starting to panic. i called her, but there was no response, so i looked out the front door to see if she had already left for work – which i was certain she hadn’t, but she wasn’t anywhere else, but the car was still in the driveway. now i’m really starting to panic. i called out her name again… and she responded??? from the bedroom???????? i went back to the bedroom and she was wondering why i was banging around and yelling… BLOWN HEAD GASKET!! apparently she went to bed, in the bedroom, shortly after i did last night, around 11:00 or so. normally i wake up when she comes to bed, but in spite of the fact that i apparently turned off the light, which is on my side of the bed, i didn’t wake up. i still don’t know why she wasn’t there when i woke up, because she said she hadn’t moved…

now i’m back home after taking moe to work, shipping out a package for hybrid elephant and getting the oil changed in the car, feeling like i didn’t get any sleep at all, and i find out that coretta scott king died last night, and alito has been confirmed as a supreme court justice… wonderful… now that the king legacy is dead, they figure that they can do anything they want… next they’re going to be overturning roe v. wade, demanding paternal consent for abortions and who knows what else that’s totally in opposition to everything upon which this country was founded…

Senate confirms Alito to the Supreme Court
Tuesday, January 31, 2006

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Senate confirmed Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court on Tuesday by a vote of 58-42, a day after an attempt by some Democratic senators to block his nomination fizzled.

Alito, who will be the court’s 110th justice, will be sworn into office across the street from the Capitol at the Supreme Court, just hours before President Bush’s State of the Union address. He will then join Chief Justice John Roberts in the House chamber for Tuesday night’s speech.

Judge Alito will be ceremonially sworn into office Wednesday in the East Room of the White House.

Alito watched the Senate vote from the Roosevelt Room of the White House with President Bush and his wife, Martha-Ann Bomgardner.

Only one of the Senate’s 55 Republicans voted against Alito’s confirmation — Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, a moderate facing re-election this fall in an overwhelmingly Democratic state.

The four Democrats who broke party ranks and voted for Alito are Sens. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Kent Conrad of North Dakota. All four of the states represented by the senators were carried by Bush in both 2000 and 2004.

Alito’s supporters in the Senate, as expected, cleared the final roadblock Monday when senators, by a vote of 72-25, decided to cut off debate and proceed to a final vote, rebuffing an attempt by a cadre of liberal senators to talk the nomination to death.

The vote easily exceeded the 60 votes needed to pass the motion.

In the end, only 24 of the chamber’s 44 Democrats went along with the filibuster, a maneuver allowed under Senate rules to block a vote by extending debate indefinitely. It was also supported by the chamber’s lone independent, Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont.

Arguing against cutting off debate, Sen. John Kerry — who spearheaded the filibuster effort with his fellow Massachusetts Democrat, Sen. Ted Kennedy — said Alito’s record during his 15 years on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has given “the extreme right wing unbelievable public cause for celebration.”

“That just about tells you what you need to know,” Kerry said. “The vote today is whether or not we will take a stand against ideological court-packing.”

But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said the move to cut off debate fulfilled a “very straightforward principle — a nominee with the support of a majority of senators deserves a fair up-or-down vote.”

“The sword of the filibuster has been sheathed because we are placing principle before politics, and results before rhetoric,” Frist said.

The motion to cut off debate drew the support of 53 Republicans and 19 Democrats, including all 14 senators who signed on to an agreement last year that ended a series of Democratic filibusters of Bush’s judicial nominations.

The so-called Gang of 14 included seven Democrats and seven Republicans.

The Democrats agreed not to support judicial filibusters except under “extraordinary circumstances,” which would be up to each senator to define. In return, the GOP members agreed not to support any attempt by Republican leaders to change Senate rules to permanently end the practice.

Among the 24 Democrats who supported the filibuster were five senators being mentioned as possible 2008 White House contenders — Kerry, who lost to Bush in 2004; Hillary Clinton of New York; Evan Bayh of Indiana; Russ Feingold of Wisconsin; and Joe Biden of Delaware.

The Senate’s top two Democrats, Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, also supported the Kerry-Kennedy filibuster effort.

Alito, 55, replaces retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a moderate swing vote and the first woman appointed to the high court.

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if it weren’t tuesday, i would swear that it was monday… 8/