Senate Vote Confirms New Supreme Court Justice

68-31, which does not include John McCain. Congratulations soon-to-be when sworn in on Saturday, Associate Justice Sotomayor!

Video: The Best of Pat Buchanan (lately)

I hope Pat Buchanan keeps talking, but not because I agree with him or anything.

Video: In the Supreme Court Nominee Hearings, Justices Alito and Roberts were so much better than Judge Sotomayor

Yep. That's what Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) thinks. All I got is alrighty then.

Video: The Day in 100 Seconds

Wednesday, Sotomayor, back in the hot seat, wise Latina, mountain out of a mole hill, wise Latina, my words failed, didn't work, do you stand by your words?, it fell flat, still concerned about wise Latina, judges, change the law, interpret certain laws, please educate me, personal self defense, yes or no, do we have that right, threatened, use force to repel, I'm gonna come get you, get a gun, come back and shoot you, may not be legal, lots of 'splainin' to do, I'd be in a lot of trouble then, enormous pride that you are here, goosebumps, I'm not an expert in marijuana growing, good humor, influenced so greatly by a television show, Perry Mason, I've been focusing on your mother, she has a lot to say, don't give her the chance, recess, Judge? Whatja do with your mother?, short break, Senator Franken, you mentioned Perry Mason, I was a big fan, great show, South Bronx, Suburban Minneapolis, here we are, pretty cool

Video: Senator Franken questions Judge Sotomayor regarding Internet regulation

Video: Senator Franken questions Judge Sotomayor

Yesterday in 100 Seconds

Warning!!!: Lots of balls and strikes in this one. I don't know why exactly. But there's lots and lots of balls, and lots and lots of strikes. There's no foul balls though. Foul, but no foul balls.

Day One: Opening Statements and Glenn Beck

Do you know the difference between 'opening statements' and 'questioning'? I do. I bet you do too. Glenn Beck doesn't.

Sometimes when I watch these kinds of clips, I feel like I am in middle school again. Making drama out of absolutely nothing.

I also don't believe that the United States of America is burning to the ground. Not yet at least.

Oh and the questioning begins today.

Think Progress:

Senator Franken's 5th Day In Office

Should Eliot Spitzer be forgiven?

In light of all the recent Republican sexual shenanigans, I think it's time to forgive Eliot Spitzer a little, while reminding him that he should never be like the Republicans again!

The big case of the day was the one overturned by the Supremes. It was big because President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotmayor made the ruling.

But then there's this one. Not insignificant either. And it shows Eliot Spitzer doing what he did best before he screwed his life up.

If Republican Mark Sanford remains Governor of South Carolina after his Aregentian adventures, then perhaps it is incumbent on the rest of us to listen to Eliot Spitzer, a lot.

Cuomo v. Clearing House Association got its start in 2005, when then-New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer discovered that many major banks operating in his state were making a disproportionate number of high-interest loans to minorities. He sent letters to Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citi, and other big banks seeking information about their lending practices. Rather than respond to the request, the banks sued Spitzer through their trade group, the Clearing House Association, arguing that Spitzer's request violated federal banking rules. source: Mother Jones

The deal is, everybody keep your pants on. That's the deal. Solve the problems. Keep your britches on. I know that's not literally possible, but you know what I'm sayin'.

At least I hope you do.

Your Weekly Radio Address

From The White House Blog:

Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 11:59 pm

Weekly Address: The Experience of Judge Sotomayor

The President discusses the breadth and depth of experience held by his nominee for the Supreme Court. In the course of a life that began in a housing project in the South Bronx and brought her to the pinnacle of her profession, Judge Sonia Sotomayor accumulated more experience on the federal bench than any incoming Supreme Court Justice in the past 100 years, touching nearly every aspect of our legal system.



read transcript

La Raza, the "Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses"?

Republican Tom Tancredo, has been on television telling us all how bad Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court is because of membership in La Raza, which Tancredo decries is a racist Hispanic organization, referring to La Raza as the "Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses".

But as this video of both President Bush and John McCain publicly praising La Raza illustrates, the only comparison involving the KKK that Tancredo should make is between himself and a Grand Wizard. source: Jed Lewison at DK

To be fair, Mr. Tancredo isn't the only one making extreme claims about Judge Sotomayor.

Via Think Progress (by way of BarbMD at DK):

SHUSTER: Mr. Tancredo, do you agree that the Obama administration hates white people?

TANCREDO: Oh [sighs], I don’t know. But I’ll tell you this –

SHUSTER: You don’t know? In other words, they might?

TANCREDO: What do I — I have no idea whether they hate white people or not!

There's also G. Gordon Liddy.

He calls her a racist too. Keep it up guys.

LIDDY: Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something or just before she’s going to menstruate. That would really be bad.... source: C & L

To the back of the bus and beyyyyoooonnnndddd! (think Mr. Lightyear)

I am White. I have never been asked to go to the back of the bus. Granted, I drive a 72-passenger flat nose/pusher almost every day so I'm in control of things on the bus, but sheesh.

Mr. T can't answer the question but I will. For the record, I don't think President Obama hates White People. I don't think he hates people in general. I can't look into his heart or peer into his mind that's for sure, still I really doubt that he has all that much time and/or energy to spend hating people anyway.

I look at his kids and his wife. Nah. Not haters. They look like lovers to me.

The Day in 100 Seconds

It is Friday, TGIF, I just wanna say, Sotomayor, highly qualified, a racist, divided, how to combat Judge Sotomayor, an opportunity to be serious, she's racist, 100% racist, reverse racist, kind of offensive, I'm a blue collar SOB, Woa!, take a step back here, son of a butcher, for kids at home, not how you win elections, race based justice at the expense of white males, care about civil rights, equal justice under law, hostility and bigotry, toward white males, working class guys who voted for Pat Buchanan, serious questions, serious stuff, that woman, stop breathing, no discrimination, between two angry white men, Friday, happy time, dancin' on the ceiling

Racist Organizations?

A good point was made in the swamp. I guess that if a person loathes and despises the NAACP, then that same person would not have a very good opinion regarding La Raza.

Isn't there a 'Pasty White Guy's Club', that looks out for the interest of men of whiteness? Oh no. Maybe that's those secret societities that they join in college that I'm thinking of. Something about human skeletal remains. Yeah that's it. Skull and Bones maybe.

I'm a white woman. A pasty white woman at that. A middle-aged pasty white woman. I know a lot of white guys, some pasty, some not quite so pasty. I haven't heard any of them ever mention feeling threatened by the NAACP, or La Raza. Maybe I just don't hang with the correct crowd. I hesitate to call it the right crowd.

This seems like a bunch of hooey about nothing.

It's not a complete sentence, but a stunning quote nonetheless. Here's Tom Tancredo, on Sonia Sotomayor's membership in the National Council of La Raza:

If you belong to an organization called La Raza, which is, from my point of view anyway, a Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses.

From their point of view, La Raza describes itself as "the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States." Basically the Hispanic NAACP. The estimated year in which Republicans regain majority status just got pushed back at least two decades. source: The Swampland at Time

I'm a fairly simple person. Maybe I'm a bit too simple-minded, but I think the KKK without the hoods and nooses, just wouldn't be the KKK, at least historically speaking. To call it an over the top comparison seems like an undergarment.

I meant understatement. Just trying to keep my sense of humor here.

My other simple thought when watching the news programs that feature Tom Tancredo is that he's just nuts. That's what it looks like in front of my teevee machine in the heartland.

Nuff said.

Considering 'Life' when ruling on Supreme Court cases

Yesterday in 100 Seconds

Tom Tancredo in spiked heels? Yuck! Thanks a lot Sanchez!

One sentence in one speech in eight years says Eric Boehlert of Media Matters, for Tom Tancredo that makes Sotomayer a racist, even though the context in which she was speaking is left out of the racist repetition.

After listening to Tancredo, he really represents the style, tenacity and repetition of the Republican Party that won a lot of elections and wielded held a great deal of power and control over the all branches of government.

Take a little something-something and repeat it with great passion over and over and over again, (especially, if there is no basis in truth, no facts to be found) until it becomes 'true' in the hearts and minds of many people.

They always loves them some nuance too. Where there is nuance there is a Republican attack line.

Supreme Court Nominations: Creating a 'Hot Button Issue'

This was the closing paragraph from the post at Think Progress. I'm thinking it should be at the beginning for this post.

Remember, Tancredo is the lawmaker who called Miami a “third world country” because of the number of Latinos there, criticized presidential candidates for “pandering” by participating in a Spanish-language debate, and accused immigrants of “pushing drugs, raping kids, and destroying lives.” He said the issue of immigration is “whether we will survive.”

On The Ed Schultz Show, former Republican House member Tom Tancredo said that he doesn't care about the IQ of Judge Sotomayor, and he hasn't read any of the cases she ruled on, but because of remarks she made during a speech (the context of which brings a slightly different dimension to the words that Tancredo rattles off), she's a racist.

For more on the speech in question, see also below the video.

Creating a 'Hot Button Issue'

There is also analysis of the context of Judge Sotomayor's remarks that is being largely left out of this television discussion (because they can and nearly have to because of time constraints, commercials, and trying to talk over each other) which Media Matters addresses:

In fact, contrary to the suggestion that Sotomayor was commenting on the general judicial ability of Latinas and white men, Sotomayor was talking specifically about "race and sex discrimination cases." From Sotomayor's speech, delivered at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law and published in 2002 in the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal: read more here

Yesterday in 100 seconds

It is Tuesday, Breaking News, It is Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court Justice, The Nominee, I'm excited too, I've decided, inspiring woman, great Justice, I strive never to forget, real world consequences, ordinary person, opportunities and experiences, what a moment, only in America moment, very difficult, go after her, with her credentials, twofer, a woman and a Latina, gonna gun her down, tough target, Liberal jurist, compelling life story, Hispanic woman, I've always be pro-woman, lack of intellectual depth, summa cum laude, Editor of Yale Law Review, intellectual candle power, Republicans will oppose her at their peril, risen from poverty, is she an activist judge?, feeling above the rule of law, President Obama chose her, Judge Sotomayor saved baseball, warm consideration, It's Sonia