Once again, democracy is too good for this country, apparently. Some republicans - well, almost all of them - want to eliminate the filibuster rule, which basically allows a senator to get up and blather to oppose something that they simply can't accept. It's used pretty rarely and generally only in extreme cases, from what I gather. At any rate, if they eliminate it, there's nothing stopping them from putting in extreme right-wing justices on various courts, including of course the Big One. So... bye-bye, environment, privacy, minimum wage... and back into the closet with the butt-sex. Whee.

Fortunately, there are 6 votes up in the air, and we need 3 to win. So, if you could sign a petition (like http://www.moveonpac.org/nuclear/) or personally contact your senator (particularly if they're Arlen Specter (PA), Chuck Hagel (NE), John Warner (VA), or Susan Collins (ME)), maybe we can, y'know, avoid one step closer to totalitarianism.

Ok, I'm going to go vomit into my own mouth now. (Seriously, they're even considering this?) Meanwhile, in Germany, Chancellor Shröder has called for new elections to allow the people to decide if they want to stick with his course or switch. (There's more to it than that, but German politics has a lot of "Are you *sure* you want to do this?" in it.)