Thou shalt not kill.

Sadly, it applies to me too. I have an overwhelming urge to send the Republican senators vicious mail about their act of rubber-stamping cowardice. Then again, I suppose having at least some Senators realize something called a conscience is a big improvement.

[Foreign Relations] Committee Sends Bolton Vote to Senate (Washington Post)

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee today sent to the full Senate President Bush's controversial nomination of John R. Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations, but the panel withheld a favorable recommendation at the urging of a key Republican member.

In a straight party-line vote, the committee voted 10-8 to forward the nomination without a recommendation after more than five hours of debate.

The unusual move came at the suggestion of Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio), who voiced opposition this morning to nomination of Bolton but said he deserved an "up-or-down vote" on the Senate floor....

Other Republicans came to Bolton's defense, saying the case against him was overblown. As the hearing ended, committee chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said he was taking Voinovich's advice and that "the vote will be to report the nomination without recommendation." ...

Once the nomination reaches the floor, it is likely to be approved, since the Democrats are unlikely to be able to attract enough Republican defectors to defeat a choice still strongly backed by President Bush, Senate sources said.

If only ya'll could've heard my frustrated/irritated exclamation... I had so much hope. To me, there was more to this nomination than just John Bolton. It was about my faith in the partisan committee system. I have to laud Senator Voinovich for at least doing what others were too afraid to do: think for himself. I'm very upset that he couldn't muster up enough of that said courage to vote AGAINST him, which would've led to a deadlocked committee, but I'm trying not to blame him. In fact, if he had at least one Republican colleague by his side, it would've been feasible for him to not mistake the President's word as the Word of God. If his office will accept letters or emails from non-Ohio residents, I think I'll send him a thank you letter and also ask him to finally follow through with his personal judgement and vote "no" on Bolton.

Senator George Voinovich (R-OH)

Transcript: Voinovich Makes the Case Against Bolton (ThinkProgress)

After great thought and consideration, I have based my decision on what I think is the bigger picture. Frankly, there is a particular concern that I have about this nomination, and it involves the big picture of U.S. public diplomacy.

It was not long ago when America’s love of freedom was a force of inspiration to the world and America was admired for its democracy, generosity and its willingness to help others in need of protection. Today, the United States is criticized for what the world calls arrogance, unilateralism and for failing to listen and to seek the support of its friends and allies. There has been a drastic change in the attitude of our friends and allies in such organizations as the United Nations and NATO and in the countries of leaders that we need to rely upon for help....

We will face more difficulties in conducting the war on terrorism, promoting peace and stability worldwide and building democracies without the help from our friends to share the responsibilities, leadership and costs.To achieve these objectives, public diplomacy must once again be of high importance. If we cannot win over the hearts and minds of the world community and work together as a team, our goals will be more difficult to achieve. Additionally, we will be unable to reduce the burden on our own resources. The most important of these resources are the human resources, the lives of the men and women of our armed forces, who are leaving their families every day to serve their country overseas....

But what message are we sending to the world community when in the same breath we have sought to appoint an ambassador to the United Nations who himself has been accused of being arrogant, of not listening to his friends, of acting unilaterally, of bullying those who do not have the ability to properly defend themselves? These are the very characteristics that we’re trying to dispel in the world community.

We must understand that next to the president, the vice president, secretary of state, the next most important, prominent public diplomat is our ambassador to the United Nations. It is my concern that the confirmation of John Bolton would send a contradictory and negative message to the world community about U.S. intentions. I’m afraid that his confirmation will tell the world that we’re not dedicated to repairing our relationship or working as a team, but that we believe only someone with sharp elbows can deal properly with the international community.....

When discussing all these concerns with Secretary Rice, John Bolton’s propensity to get off message, his lack of interpersonal skills, his tendency to abuse others who disagree with him, I was informed by the secretary of state that she understood all these things and in spite of them still feels that John Bolton is the best choice and that she would be in frequent communication with him and he would be closely supervised. My private thought at the time, and I should have expressed it to her, is: Why in the world would you want to send somebody up to the U.N. that has to be supervised? .....

Additionally, I wanted to note my concern that Colin Powell, the person to whom Mr. Bolton answered to over the last four years, was conspicuously absent from a letter signed by former secretaries of state recommending Mr. Bolton’s confirmation* ......

Mr. Chairman, I have to say that after poring over the hundreds of pages of testimony and – you know, I wasn’t here for those hearings, but I did my penance, I read all of it – I believe that John Bolton would have been fired if he’d worked for a major corporation. This is not the behavior of a true leader who upholds the kind of democracy that President Bush is seeking to promote globally. This is not the behavior that should be endorsed as the face of the United States to the world community and the United Nations. Rather, Mr. Chairman, it is my opinion that John Bolton is the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be.....

After hours of deliberation, telephone calls, personal conversations, reading hundreds of pages of transcripts and asking for guidance from above, I have come to the determination that the United States can do better than John Bolton.....

But, Mr. Chairman [Senator Lugar], I really don’t believe he’s the best man that we can send to the United Nations.

My comment on that ThinkProgress piece:

I’m angry about the nomination… but I really couldn’t expect Senator Voinovich to do that to himself. I can imagine the pressure the top Repugs must have been putting on him these last weeks. I’m dissapointed, because he could have just voted “no", but I guess I’ll have to accept the fact that the best we’ll get out of this partisan system is occasional moments of brilliant conscientiousness.

Christie at the Stanford filibuster

What an amazing experience...

Stanford University is one of the most beautiful places in the already breathtakingly beautiful Bay Area. It is also the epicenter of intellectual power (sorry, Lynbrook kids, but you guys are a close second).

So I went to the Stanford filibuster. I drove. As I expected, it was about two people standing near a table and podium, one of them dressed in a suit and reading the Constitution of the United States of America. The other person was an adult, I think, with slightly thinning hair. I was really shy when approaching them, but they were both amazingly nice. After explaining the filibuster to one of the other people there (there were like, five people at around 8 pm or so) the speaker backtracked to re-read the Preamble to the Constitution. Meanwhile, the older person was amazed that I knew about the Senate tradition of reading PHONE BOOKS during filibusters (hey, Strom Thurmond once filibustered for 24 hours... he needed SOMETHING to read, didn't he?) so we got in a discussion about it. Turns out, he's studying Constitutional Law, so our discussion soon turned into some constitutional history, then the unconstitutionality of the Schivo law that Congress tried to enforce upon a State district court. I asked him to clarify the duties of the appellate courts, which he gladly did... Then we talked about how nobody learns anything from history, how Iraq is so hauntingly similar to Vietnam. He was thrilled when I mentioned "Tonkin Gulf" so we discussed the politics of war. He made a good point. If we had a draft now for the Iraq war, there would be more political pressure on the Bush administration to withdraw due to public protest. After discussing the draft and the possibility for one in the near future... I realized it was getting dark (I had stayed by the filibuster for more than half an hour). After finding my mom, we walked back to the car and came home.

I seriously had the most amazing time talking about things I am passionate about with people who share the genuine interest. Yeah, I'm always up for a challenging debate with APUSHers on the affects of the Vietnam War, but it' has a DBQ tone to it- an impersonal, detatched discussion without much personal thought and input. My mom told me in the car that she was so amazed at how just HAPPY I looked. That's what it is. Call me a dork, a flaming liberal who needs to stop obsessing over the world and start studying more... But tonight... isolated from the inane aspects of junior year, I felt like I truly belonged. No, not necessarily at Stanford (though a girl can always dream, right?) but unafraid to showcase my beliefs and proud of who I am.

Through this whole process... My mom stood nearby, watching me take the path I know she wishes I wouldn't take. Wow. If there is such thing as unconditional motherly love... I felt it today more than any other time. But I think both of us desperately needed something like tonight to clear things up: for me to not feel guilty about wanting to go into political science, and for her to realize that this truly is the right thing for me. Also during the car ride back (mom drove, and ironically, we got lost) she rescinded her previous reservations and inhibitions about my interest in political science- I looked like I belonged, and most importantly (for her, and also for me, I suppose), I looked satisfied. Thanks mom; I love you!

So now... PICTURES!

Because every school has a bell tower.

Um, we actually took this picture while we were lost near the undergrad housing area.

This was the poster explaining the filibuster.

Studying their material on filibusters. Due to my obessive news-browsing, I had read most of the stuff.

Don't you just LOVE the speaker's hair?

Not really paying attention to the speaker. By this time, we were probably discussing either the Schiavo case or Iraq war. But ugh, I hate talking to people much taller than I am. I'm talking to the person in blue, who, as you see, is much taller. *bleh*

Gotta love these Stanford kids... actually, all these people who actively care about the government. Amidst the cynicism, they haven't given up hope that this CAN and WILL be a govern by the people, for the people, and of the people. And considering that some of these people will be our next leaders, things might not be going so badly after all...

And as a tribute to some of the brightest minds in America... the parting image I leave you, my friends...

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) talks to the pro-filibuster crowd.

From the New York Times [May 12]:

Democratic senators from New York and New Jersey plan a rally for Thursday with Princeton students who began a protest against the proposed rule change on April 26. In tribute to the filibuster, the parliamentary tactic of refusing to close debate that Democrats have used to block the nominees, the students have talked and read aloud for more than 350 hours at the university outside the Frist Campus Center, which is named for the family of Dr. Frist, an alumnus.