Packing up shop!

We've moved! Come check me out at www.checkthediagonal.com Thanks! -Mike

Post-Racial?

Yea right. The tea-party movement has got your post racial America right here.

Moral Authority

Think about this for a moment. The MSM, Sectretary of Defense, the US Military and the American people are all outraged by the Taliban video showing captured Pvt. Bowe Bergdahl. But, we no longer have the moral authority to be outraged. Bush, Cheney and Co. squandered that in the name of torture. We have also broken international law. Juan Cole sums up nicely..

In fact, as I was reminded by a former ambassador, the Bush-Cheney-Yoo-Armitage gutting of US conformance with the Geneva Conventions really makes it difficult for Washington credibly to complain about the treatment of any of our captured soldiers. The Taliban could hold the soldier hostage forever if they follow the principle put forward by Sen. Lindsey Graham. They could (God forbid) put him in stress positions naked and threaten to release the pictures to his family, and they would have done nothing that Rumsfeld's Pentagon had not done routinely and on a vast scale.

The intellectual wing of the Republican Party

Birthers, please go to FactCheck.org for a look at an original, raised seal copy of Obama's birth certificate. http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html

FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. We have posted high-resolution photographs of the document as "supporting documents" to this article. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said.

Why did one straw break the camel's back?

The current government in Iran has already lost their power. They just don't know it yet. Abbas Milani explains why at TNR here.

Before coming to power, Khomeini argued that the most important duty, indeed the raison d'etre of an Islamic government, was to implement fully the tenets of sharia. But once in power and faced with the complexities of modern Iranian society, he subtly changed the very foundation of his theory. He introduced the concept of maslaha--interests of the regime--and declared, much to the consternation of nearly every other ayatollah, that these interests, as determined by him or his successor, would supersede even the fundamentals of Islam. In other words, the state was everything--and sharia was nothing but its legitimizing narrative, a narrative that could be suspended at the will of the leader.

Khomeini's entire platform for legitimacy, for the existence of his government and his unquestionable power as Supreme Leader was based on a sham that he didn't believe in. Up until June 12, 2009 the people of Iran didn't take notice and most didn't even care... ..and then the other shoe dropped. This is a must read from an anonymous Iranian at Salon. "And Still Our Vote Mattered"

That the vote was against Ahmadinejad there can be no doubt. Consider this: Over the 30-year history of the Islamic Republic of Iran, some 30 percent of the population has never voted. These are the true disbelievers, citizens who take pride in having a blank shenasname, or identity booklet. They are the friends and family members who take every opportunity to remind the rest of us, at the dinner table, caught in traffic, sitting in the park, that voting is a mistake, that you ought not participate in a system that is at its core rotten. Except ... Except this time a good half of these nonbelievers came. They came, pulled, pleaded -- coaxed into voting by sons and daughters. They came this year, dramatically reversing what had been a steady decline in participation, lifting turnout to heights not seen since the early days of the Revolution. With the much ballyhooed rural vote already in the bank for the president, the only place left for Ahmadinejad to make up his reported 6 to 8 million new votes was with the apostates. Are we really to believe, as some are now insisting, that these many millions showed up to vote for the incumbent? There's no doubt the vote mattered. Had we not voted, had we not stood in line and suffered this fate together, then we would not have come to the square, we would not be climbing the rooftops every night to sing protests that our votes were so clumsily and needlessly taken away. The fact is that up until four Saturdays ago, Iran's system, with all of its limitations and compromises, was not completely rotten. Our peculiar democracy permitted faith in a residual uncertainty, in the possibility that the guy who can't possibly win, whom they won't let win, still just might. June 12, 2009, ended that uncertainty, brought clarity.

Freedom won't come easy or quick for the Iranian people . Obvious at this point is the Iranian Government's willingness do absolutely anything, including killing women and children to keep their power. What I don't get is the Iranian government seems to be missing the point. The more violence they use, the more martyrs they create, the stronger the resistance becomes. They are force feeding direct power and energy to a non-violent movement growing in the purest spirit of Gandhi and King. The harder the government of Iran thrashes, the more likely the outcome becomes. Insha'Allah.

The single best description of John McCain I've ever read

Care of Matt Steinglass via Andrew.

John McCain is unqualified to be Commander-in-Chief. McCain is a guy of rather mediocre intellect, little curiosity, and very poor and impulsive decision-making skills. He’s vain and headstrong, and he easily turns opposition over matters of policy or politics into personal vendettas. He became a political commodity in 1973 because he embodied the right-wing working-class value of patriotism under duress at a moment when patriotism and the white working class felt under attack for their complicity in a disastrous foreign war. And he was seized upon by a desperate Republican Party in political free-fall; in the thick of Watergate, the Nixon administration launched him as a political celebrity. He then parlayed that notoriety into a political career a few years down the road. He certainly has a substantial amount of charm and an instinct for playing the press, and he’s hardly the dumbest guy in the Senate. But he is not a responsible or serious person. And to a great degree, when he met Sarah Palin, he probably felt he was looking at a younger version of himself. Which is to say that the “rot” in the GOP, the eagerness to substitute celebrity and resentful pseudo-patriotic gibberish for real political discussion, goes back a lot longer than 8 years.

Thank God for Barack Hussein Obama, if only for making sure John McCain is never President of The United States.

Anyone else notice?

Looks like Colin Powell is considering a 2012 run for President. In the past two weeks he has been on every major talk show. He has criticized Obama for taking on too much while reminding everyone he endorsed him, Bush for Iraq and the economy and the right wing talk show pundits for being too over the top. I think he is a great and very accomplished man. I had hoped his Obama endorsement would translate into some kind of role in the administration but sadly, no.

The Media FAIL on Michael Jackson and Sarah Palin

One of my favorite football movies is Remember The Titans with Denzel Washington. His character Herman Boone has a great line that describes my current feeling towards the MSM:

I don't scratch my head unless it itches and I don't dance unless I hear some music.

I refuse to follow the bouncing ball or have CNN and MSNBC or The NY Times herd me like sheep through their attention deficit laden soundbites. Unfortunately, the rest of the country is watching in rapture. Subjects like Health Care, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, 10% Unemployment have all happily been buried deep. Who wants to see that depressing shit anyway, right? "The sum of the suggestions is the child's mind."

Coleman handles it well?

Marc Ambinder and his team seem to be angling for a gig over at Politico or FOX these day. This is what passes for crap over at The Atlantic these days:

The fact that he challenged the result for seven months probably won't help his future. During that time, he drew fire from liberals across the country for drawing the battle out in court, calling him a spoiler as they chomped at the bit for Democrats to get their 60th seat, sort of like a kid on Christmas morning, forced to wait for a Nintendo Wii. Americans United for Change actually placed a billboard along I-94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul blasting Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) for not certifying Franken ahead of the court's decision. But today, Coleman didn't look like the sore loser. In terms of demeanor, he handled himself pretty well--

He selfishly and single handedly prevented the good people of the state of Minnesota from their elected representation in the name of Republican obstructionism for 7 months and you guys call that handling it pretty well? I'd love to see what they call fucking shit up for no good reason.

The Revolution Will NOT Be Televised!

The resistance in Iran continues, and so does the regime's violent and vicious crackdown. But, if you're in the world outside of Iran, judging by the lack of information flowing out of Iran, one could assume the unrest is over and life goes on. This is a system working as designed. Siemans AG and Nokia, in a massive joint venture, sold a Monitoring Center to the Iranian government This Monitoring Center is what allows the Iranian government to control technology within Iran. With it they have completely shut down their cell phone and Internet networks so that twitter and Facebook can no longer be used to share the injustices is going on with the world. And so, it was technology that Iranians used to cry for help to the world and the world's pursuit of profit from technology sales that made it possible for that voice to be silenced. To be clear, I make a very good living selling technology but this is a line that should not be crossed for profit. Thankfully, I am not the only one who feels this way. Obama urged to punish US firms for aiding internet censorship

Leading companies earn hundreds of millions of pounds every year through their relationship with governments in repressive countries. Campaigners are agitating for the US president to put his weight behind the Global Online Freedom Act (Gofa), a law that would see US companies fined if they profit from involvement in online censorship.

The Party of "Family Values"

My first reaction to both the Ensign and Sanford scandals was to laugh. Watching the post-Bush Republican Party is honestly more entertaining then a Real World Episode after MTV buys the drinks. They are the petulant, rich kid, frat boys who think of only themselves regardless of the consequence to others. In both cases, they only came clean because they had to. Ensign couldn't afford the blackmail and Sanford is an idiot. After the fact though, I feel bad. I especially feel bad for the wives and kids. Sanford has 4 boys who didn't see or hear from him on Father's day. I've been there and it sucks. But, what made me laugh still remains. These guys are all arrogance and no game. Mucho espuma, poco chocolate. Tu sabes? TNC gets it perfectly here:

The religious right isn't what's wrong with the GOP. It's the pervasive, unthinking, unreflective nationalism. It's the arrogance of thrice-divorced adulterers reaching for the banner of traditional families, and it's the arrogance of men who prosecuted a poorly planned war, on weak intelligence, presuming to lecture us on national security.

What concerns me most about the obvious lack of moral turpitude and more obvious hypocrisy in the Republican Party is that our children are learning these values from them. These are the "successful people". And so, our children see clearly that it is OK unless they get caught. My kids are smart enough to do the math. The game is called, don't get caught! Right?

Wishes All Eyes Were Focused on Iran

While the MSM plays follow the bouncing ball with the general populace young people in Iran are still being killed and kidnapped in the name of oppression. These deaths matter.

Poem for Friday

Sometimes I get discouraged I look around and, things are so weak People are so weak Sometimes, Sometimes I feel like crying Sometimes my heart gets heavy Sometimes I just want to leave and fly away Sometimes I dont know what to do with myself Passion takes over me I feel like a man Going insane Losing my brain Trying to maintain Doing my thang Mos Def- Umi Says

A Modern Civil Rights Movement

Andrew just posted The Survivalist Guide To Protesting from an Iranian blogger over twitter. I can't help but imagine that these preparations might not be too dissimilar from what African Americans went through during the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s. I also think our political and pundit class is having a great deal of trouble thinking about Iran in these terms. To them, Iran = Evil = Need for Regime Change. I'm not so sure the Iranian people were originally looking for regime change. They stand on their roofs and call out to Allah every night, they seem to love the religious aspect of their society. I think they are looking for the same things African Americans were looking for in the 60s, respect and an equal say in how they live their lives. In the meanwhile feeling helpless sucks.

Joke of the week.

I think Fareed Zakaria GPS is one of the most educational and insightful news show on TV today. Anyone interested in the goings on outside of the United States should read his book and TIVO the show. That out of the way, nothing is perfect. One of his guests this weekend was Columbia University J School Dean Sree Sreenivasan who graced us with this brilliant exchange.

ZAKARIA: Sree, what strikes you about this? I mean, what I'm struck by is how -- the fact that you don't have that much coming out of television has meant that news organizations like CNN have to rely on people on the street, iReports, Twitter. SREE SREENIVASAN, PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY JOURNALISM SCHOOL: Right. And it's causing a lot of consternation within newsrooms, because they're not used to putting things on the air that they cannot verify 100 percent, or as close to that as possible.

The uselessness of the Ivy never ceases to amaze. Only 100 percent verifiable on air. Right. Clown.

Instead of screaming

Joe Klein Does the Right Thing

And so I finally forgive Joe Klein for his New Yorker review of Do The Right Thing. The whole post on Swampland is here:

To put it as simply as possible, McCain--and his cohorts--are trying to score political points against the President in the midst of an international crisis. It is the sort of behavior that Republicans routinely call "unpatriotic" when Democrats are doing it. I would never question John McCain's patriotism, no matter how misguided his sense of the country's best interests sometimes seems. His behavior has nothing to do with love of country; it has everything to do with love of self.

Anyone else out there find it interesting that the same crew of neocons that are attacking the President today for not being supportive enough of Iranians were the same bunch that wanted to bomb them 6 months ago?

A Poem for Monday

1000 Words.

The new face of the revolution.

Are we really that different?

Six months ago I posted a video from Jordan's Queen Rania called Your Three Words. It was then that I first started to realize that people really are the same everywhere. The people of the Middle East are not very different from us Americans. They love and work and laugh and cry and have families who love them back. This is the exasperating problem with combating racism. Its akin to narcotic drug addiction, at its core is a completely irrational elitism that can only be changed by the individual themselves. Unfortunately, the current state of American media and politics only serves to further feed the addiction. For as long as I can remember Middle Eastern people, Muslims and most specifically Iranians have been demonized by our culture. This didn't begin on 9/11. I was 10 when the Iran Hostage Crisis began. That's my first memory of fearing the dark and mysterious people of Iran. In this way the Iranian people have been caricatures, like Keyser Söze, used to inspire fear and loathing in Americans by our politicians and the media. We are taught at a very young age to fear what is different, and in return, we are controlled by it. Something extraordinary is happening in Iran today and it has a voice and it sounds beautiful.

It's 10:00 PM. Do you know where your children are?

That was a popular television public service announcement when I was growing up in NYC. My mother didn't know half the time. Thank god I do know where my children are tonight; safe and sound in their beds. My heart goes out to this Iranian father who sent a prayer over twitter for news of his daughter:

"please RT urgent does anyone know whats happening near saiee park? my daughter is near"

Andrew Sullivan is keeping an amazing record of the live twitters out of Iran here.

After a few weeks.....

Clearly, I needed a break. The more I tuned into the political punditry and sideshow, the more hostile and inconsolable I became. This blog was originally intended as an outlet, as therapy for my helpless frustration as someone who had only recently been politically awakened by the campaign of President Obama and hated what I, in part, allowed to happen with my ambivalence and non-participation in the American political process. Instead my anger only grew. The more educated I become politically, the more I tuned into the plight of the world around me, the more I cared about the suffering of people I will never meet, the more I raged against injustice and double-standards and inequality, the deeper and deeper I sank. Until this moment, I wasn't sure if I would continue writing here. The world we live in is a terrible and unjust place and we all share equal responsibility for that. But, I didn't want my share. During these past few weeks I wanted to forget I ever heard Barack Obama speak about the fierce urgency of now and that I had ever read Andrew Sullivan. I wanted to go back to the times when I didn't give a shit, when I would proudly denounce my right to vote because votes don't count in the ghetto where I come from and back to a happier time when making money to buy stuff was all that mattered. And then there was an election in Iran. And I know I can't go back to be that person, I can't be silent, even if no one is listening. Kids are dying in the street right now in Iran for what they believe in. The very least I can do is crawl out from under my bed and struggle to understand how I can make pennance and peace with our world as it is today. If my only contribution is the money I have spent, then I have failed. This video is largely responsible for this post and an overwhelming debt of gratitude is owed to Andrew Sullivan by me for all of his coverage and most importantly, his tireless effort on his blog at http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/

Hope, live from Iran

A treat for Hemingway fans!

The Atlantic Online has compiled a flashback of Atlantic articles and reviews of Hemingway from 1939 to 1983 to mark his 100th birthday. Fascinating time capsule stuff. Worth a read. Tracking Hemingway

Your words are as feeble as an old woman's

Newt's letter is titled "Real Change Requires Real Change" but the only thing he seems to be changing these days is his words as the wind blows. After marching in lockstep with Rush like good Conservative and calling Sotomayor a racist Newt wants to apologize and stick to the real issue, the fact that Judge Sotomayor is a racist. I kid you not.

My initial reaction was strong and direct -- perhaps too strong and too direct. The sentiment struck me as racist and I said so. Since then, some who want to have an open and honest consideration of Judge Sotomayor’s fitness to serve on the nation’s highest court have been critical of my word choice. With these critics who want to have an honest conversation, I agree. The word “racist” should not have been applied to Judge Sotomayor as a person, even if her words themselves are unacceptable (a fact which both President Obama and his Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, have since admitted). So it is to her words -- the ones quoted above and others -- to which we should turn, for they show that the issue here is not racial identity politics. Sotomayor’s words reveal a betrayal of a fundamental principle of the American system -- that everyone is equal before the law.

He goes on to say:

Father’s Day is coming up on June 21 and Newt.org is running specials on autographed books. And speaking of Father’s Day, Jackie is asking for your help with for a Father’s Day gift for me. Sure sounds mysterious. Go to 5principlesoflife.com and she’ll tell you all the details.

Bleh. I for one hope Newt, his size 10s that fit so perfectly in his mouth, his snake oil autographed books for sale and his 36% favorable rating, run in 2012. If only to hope the beating he will get be SO bad that it runs him out of public life so we don't have to listen to the bullshit anymore.

Thoughts on the Sunday shows

In general the Sunday shows are tiresome. They have become, either out of desperation for eyeballs or lack of intellectual curiosity, National Enquirer type sensationalism that do little more than rehash partisan talking points minus interesting debate or dialogue. -Sessions looked terrified while tip-toeing around Rush calling Sotomayor a racist. Considering Sen. Sessions very checkered racist past it was telling that he wouldn't denounce the use of racist slurs and insults aimed at Judge Sotomayor. Instead, he said that while he wouldn't use those words, others were free to say what they like. Does he just fear Rush or does he believe being racist is a freedom of choice afforded us all under the constitution? -I lost count of how many guests were hocking books today. I think I'll read Renegade by Richard Wolfe but can't remember any of the others. -Chuck has obviously done his homework on Judge Sotomayor, he was a great surogate for her today. -Gwen Ifill was brilliant on identity politics.

"I always try to take arguments like this and turn them on their heads. And I never hear people say that for a white male that it's identity politics if he is shaped by his white maleness, and by the things that affected his life, and whether privilege affected his life. That's never considered to be a negative. "It's only considered to be a negative when ethnicity is involved, or race is involved, or gender is involved."

-George Will has got to go. BIG as in number of American jobs at risk. Market cap dosen't means jack. The guy is an idiot.

Words matter.

George Tiller is dead and the far Right anti-abortion lobby, Fox News and Bill O'Reily share as much responsibility in his death as the person who pulled the trigger. Words matter and there should be consequences for using influential platforms to do harm.

Judge Sotomayor is not a racist

This commentary on CNN.com written by U. of Maryland law professor Sherrilyn Ifill is worth a complete read. It evaluates the the Sotomayor speech in its totality and takes those calling her a racist for one line in it to task.

It's entirely appropriate to question Judge Sotomayor about this speech at her confirmation hearings. She is evidently more than capable of explaining in compelling, clear language what precisely she wanted to convey in this speech. But Judge Sotomayor is not a racist. It is an insult of unimaginable proportion to unleash this charge on her, based on one sentence from her Berkeley, California, speech. It is not just irresponsible to make this charge against a sitting federal appeals court judge based on this flimsy record; it is -- and here I'll break the taboo -- racist to do so.

The Book of Genesis According to St. Miguelito

On the fourth day God was riding around Harlem in a gypsy cab when he created the people and he created these beings in ethnic proportion but he saw the people lonely & hungry and from his eminent rectum he created a companion for these people and he called this companion capitalism who begat racism who begat exploitation who begat male chauvinism who begat machismo who begat imperialism who begat colonialism who begat wall street who begat foreign wars and God knew and God saw and God felt this was extra good and God said VAYAAAAAAA -Miguel Pinero

Something we need more of

From one, many.

GOP Strategy

Can someone help me understand what it is? In the short span of a couple of weeks GOP mouthpieces and operatives have done, what looks like, everything humanly possible to alienate 1. the largest block of actual voters- women and 2. the single largest growing voting block- Hispanics. If sexism and racism is a core plank of the GOP platform can they ever regain a majority? Is the real issue within the GOP that they can't control Rush-Newt-Steele-Cheney or that they don't want to?

Reading is fundamental...

I constantly rage against the slovenly work-ethic of the television and print news media. The industry is just skewed against original thought. One person with an incorrect perspective equals career over for the individual, dozens of so called pundits with an incorrect perspective equals a meme and maybe even a pulitzer. This quote from a Sotomayor speech in 2001 has been parsed and abused by the MSN since yesterday:

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

The charge is racism, of course, and the MSN are lined up in a row to ask the "tough" questions regarding Sotomayor's assertion that being Latina made her a better judge than a white man. Had they only read the speech for themselves instead of following Rush and Gingrich they would have seen this:

My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage.

and then this:

Each day on the bench I learn something new about the judicial process and about being a professional Latina woman in a world that sometimes looks at me with suspicion. I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires. I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.

In essence, she was making a point which was the EXACT opposite of what the MSM and Right Wing punditry are accusing her of.

The New RNC

Rush-Newt-Cheney. A Democrat's dream.

How things have changed.

I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress. -Frederick Douglas

Punks jump up to get beat down

Rosen having accomplished his mission of providing the anti-Sotomayor script to the Right attempts to twist the knife with yet another attack disgused as a clarification here.

Of course, Judge Sotomayor should be confirmed to the Supreme Court. She obviously wasn't my first choice, for reasons I reported three weeks ago, having mostly to do with concerns about her temperament reported to me by former clerks and New York prosecutors.

Tempermental concerns fueled by annoymous gossip and sexist double-standards. There is not a single on the record source in his three peices on the subject. Thankfully, Greenwald jumps him again here

If they had even a small amount of intellectual integrity, TNR Editors would be deeply ashamed of the central role they played in enabling this baseless, plainly false attack on Sotomayor as an intellectually deficient mediocrity. But for The New Republic, there is no greater source of pride than being approvingly cited by the Right with the "Even The New Republic . . . . " head-pat. That's their role in life, even if accomplished with patently reckless gossip masquerading as "journalism." That's one aspect of Obama's decision that is so commendable -- discarding the sleazy tactics from our corrupted establishment Beltway sources.

After the Rosen peice, the cookie-cutter comments by Chris Mattews, and the Affirmative Action jabs our President is essentially staring down the opposition down and begging them for a fight. and then this which I hope develops more fully. There should be consequences for this type of slander:

Relatedly, Brian Williams, on his blog, has a somewhat cryptic post that cites Rosen's original hit piece on Sotomayor along with my response to Rosen, and implies that he's revealing some new information about that episode based on his "reporting," though it's unclear what exactly is being revealed. Williams says that Rosen's piece "got the attention of White House staffers" but "now the original piece is under great scrutiny, as is the author's possible motives." If anyone knows what any of that means, please let me know. What I think Williams' note does reflect, as I speculated at the time, is that Rosen's gossipy smear attack will likely do far more damage to his own reputation than to Sotomayor's -- and justifiably so.

The Dishonestly of the MSM

One thing that struck me immediatly as I saw Judge Sotomayor approach the podium today was how vibrant and beautiful she looked. For weeks now the MSM have bombarded TV, print and web sources with pictures of the frontrunners. Each time, Judge Sotomayor's pictures looked darkened or cropped extra close to make her seem bloated and unattractive. If honesty and integrity is no longer on the agenda of the MSM, what is? And, if so, who is driving it?

The Leader of the Republican Party Speaks...

Rush articulates the R's gameplan by taking the racist tact.

So she's not the brain that they're portraying her to be, she's not a constitutional jurist. She is an affirmative action case extraordinaire and she has put down white men in favor of Latina women. She has claimed that the court is all about making policy. So yes, there's a golden opportunity. Take this to the mat. Take it to the wall. The people need to know what Obama really believes in and this is how it could happen. Now will the Republicans do it? That's another question.

Keep in mind, the RNC currently outperforms the DNC in fundraising nearly 3-1. This will be a cash goldmine for them.

Sotomayor gets the SCOTUS nod

As the father of Hispanic children I am delighted with Obama's courage in choosing Sotomayor. I've written about the racist, sexist and unsubstantiated attacks on Judge Sotomayor's character, temperament and ability extensively on this blog. I'm no legal expert and so can't speak to her qualifications, but the nature of those attacks made me hopeful she would be selected if only to discredit the tactics. Unfortunately, my bet is that her confirmation will be long, it will be racist and sexist and vicious. 5 minutes after the announcement the MSM meme is already targeting immigration, of course she must be illegal immigration friendly, she is Hispanic. Never mind the fact that she was born and raised in the Bronx and is as American as any non-Hispanic justice. This is an insult and typical of the MSMs lack of intellectual curiosity and integrity. The glass ceiling for my daughter has just been raised.

Racism alive and well in Georgia

Nathan Deal wants to end birth right citizenship in the United States. Story here. And why is a Georgia Representative proposing this roll back of the Civil Rights Act of 1866? Because he is a candidate for Governor of course! In Georgia, the majority of menial and domestic workers are Mexican illegals and while it is OK by Georgians for these workers to continue in this capacity, paid at slave wages, living in slave like conditions, it is not alright to consider them human beings with rights. Deal's proposal is little more than a rally flag for his campaign in a state that still treasures its ancient and storied tradition of racism.

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Unless your Mexican in Georgia.

The RNCs campaign to recruit women voters.

This is EXACTLY what Steele meant when he said:

We are going to take this president on with class. We are going to take this president on with dignity. This will be a very sharp and marked contrast to the shabby and classless way that the Democrats and the far left spoke of President Bush.

Who polices the press cont.

publius @ Obsidian Wings catches and then rips the New York Times again, this time it's Helene Cooper just making shit up.

So let's say I'm Helene Cooper of the NYT. And let's say I have a great idea for an article -- the premise is that Obama knocks down pretend strawmen in his speeches just like Bush used to do (e.g., "Some have said..."). It would be a good idea for an article -- if it were true. But it's not, as about 15 minutes of Google and Lexis would show. But Cooper went ahead and wrote it anyway.

The NYT won't have to look very far during the post-mortem.

Use your time.

“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” -Jack London

Prime Minister's Questions

Imagine how GWB would fare in this enviorment, and then imagine Obama.

Sunday Show Thoughts

-Durbin ran circles around Gingrich who came across as petty on the Pelosi exchange, generally flippant on serious issues with a say anything as long as its an attack Obama approach and ego maniacal on the 2012 question.

-Meet The Press is a sad shadow of its former self. The host gets his notes and questions from wingnut talking points and the round table hosts, with the exception of Eugene Robinson who provides a voice of reason, seem only interested in showing the world how smart and how connected to power they are.

-Waterboarding is NOT in a murky grey area. It IS torture. But, it wasn't the only torture technique used and approved by the Bush Administration, there are many others much worse. The press' juvenile fascination with over-simplification does not do this conversation justice.

-Adm. Mike Mullen was impressive on his support for Obama and on emphatically not wanting armed conflict with Iran but weak as hell on DADT. IMO, DADT is as UN-American as torture.

-This Week isn't a very credible show with George Will on the panel.

-The white male anti-affirmative action argument as articulated by David Brooks that the Right is gearing up to make versus Obama's SCOTUS nomination is both racist and sexist to its core. You will not see a minority or woman make this argument ever. Further, how the Right has a single female or minority member at this point is beyond my imagination.

-Fareed Zakaria's GPS is one of the smartest shows on TV right now especially considering how little I know about global foreign policy. His book is a must read to those interested in trying to understand.

-Quote for the day: I believe that just saying no or just looking at the threats in the region without seeing the opportunities that their are, its not enough. Tzipi Livni, Kadima Party Leader. Sound familiar folks?

-It does not look like any of the major players actually want peace in the Middle East.

Philosophers are wondering what's next

I'm giving Republicans way too much credit for being calculating, deep and intelligent in my day dreams this morning but I also have a great deal of respect for Powell and Ridge. I'd love to see them both working with the Obama team in any capacity. Anyway, here is the fantasy senario: Rush, Steele, Cheney and Co. work overtime by design to pull the party further to the right. They alienate and offend moderates to the point that the Republicans become a regional niche party commited to only the hardest line on racism, abortion and torture. (This has already happened) Tom Ridge and Gen. Powell working on script come out hard against Cheney and Co. It's truth to power, two stand up men, war heros, patriots and all that jazz which positions them both for a "change" and "rebirth of Republicanism" platform on the Republican ticket in 2012. One is a pro-choice centrist, the other black and endorsed Obama in 08'. Rush, Cheney and Co. will endorse and support in the name of Reagan's big tent. Then I woke up. :P

Feeling Good!

I haven't read a single word about SCOTUS, POTUS, or Wingnuts and I'm not missing a thing. I'm all about the frosty mug, a good book and some latin jazz tonight.

Looking forward.

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand; He knew human folly like the back of his hand, And was greatly interested in armies and fleets; When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter, And when he cried the little children died in the streets. -W.H.Auden

But before I go.

Steve Benen hits it dead on here

It's too late, but if the media insists on characterizing this as some kind of face-off between competitors of equal stature, the least news outlets could do is to point out that Cheney was simply outclassed today. As tempting as it may be to compare the substance of the president's speech with the former vice president's, that's just not possible. Obama treated the nation like adults; Cheney treated us like the target of a con.

And Andrew:

A simple note having now read the former vice-president's despicable and disgraceful speech. It confirms the very worst of him, and reveals just how callow, just how arrogant, and just how reckless and unrepentant this man is and has long been. There was not a whisper of regret or reflection; there was a series of lies and distortions, a reckless attack on a graceful successor, inheriting a world of intractable problems, and a reminder that while serious men and women will indeed move on, Cheney never will. He remains a threat to this country's constitution as he remains a stain on its honor and moral standing. I never believed I would hear a vice-president of the United States not simply defend torture but insist on pride in it, insist on its honor. But that is what he said, with that sly grin insisting that fear always beats reason, that violence always beats dialogue, and that torture is always an American value.

This clip helps express how I feel right now:

...and now you do what they told ya.

After watching the so called dueling speeches by Obama and Cheney I am enraged and sick to my stomach. It’s worth watching and reading the Obama’s speech, it was insightful, direct, comprehensive and very well written. Watch Cheney’s if you can stand to. I found it ridiculously fictitious. A noun, a verb and many 9/11s, a few WMDs that were never there laced with an Iraq connection that even the worst forms of human torture couldn’t force out basically describe it. What I find equally criminal is the MSMs part in all this; in an attempt to clear their conscience of their complicit and enabling silent behavior during the Bush Administration and in order to drive ratings and revenue will continue to provide a platform for the lies, bile and revisionist history of Cheney and Co. They will assist in the re-write it and feed it to America as truth. The same thing was done with Hillary in the primary and McCain in the general. The MSM creates the illusion that these contests and debates and talking points on issues are close and that the airing of them is meaningful and important to the American people in order to keep themselves relevant and in business. I'm taking at the least the weekend off from watching, reading or talking about politics. The American people may really be this stupid and if so we are fucked folks, and I’m tired of screaming at my screen.

The Vatican Understands Obama's Coattails

The Vatican clearly understands the choices available when a train is coming and have opted to get on. Amy Sullivan at Time has an interesting aggregate of the Holy See's massive rationalization in favor of Obama's policies and speech at Notre Dame here.

But this takes the cake. In an interview with an Italian newspaper the day after Obama's speech, Giavonni Maria Vian, editor-in-chief of L'Osservatore Romano, seemed to forcefully push back against the view that Obama is a threat to Catholic values and religious freedom. “Obama has not upset the world,” said Vian. “His speech at Notre Dame has been respectful toward every position. He tried to engage the debate stepping out from every ideological position and outside every ‘confrontational mentality.' To this extent his speech is to be appreciated.”

The Road Goes Ever On

The road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can Pursuing it with weary feet, Until it joins some larger way Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Harry Reid getting schooled by one of his own...

"I would just say to my colleagues who made those statements, you ought to take a look at some of our security facilities in the United States, and you ought to have a little more respect for the men and women who are corrections officers and put their lives on the line every single day to keep us safe and to make sure that those who are dangerous are detained and incarcerated. The reality is that we’re holding some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world right now in our federal prisons, including the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the shoe bomber, the Unibomber, and many others.,"

- Dick Durbin

Updated thought: Durbin would make a very fine majority leader. One can wish.

The Spineless Incompetence of Harry Reid

Harry Reid is THE example of what is wrong with Washington. Here he is morphing into a Republican Wingnut because fearmongering leads him to believe public opinion is on his side. You can read the whole sorry scene here. Senate Majority Leader and your very own Spineless Jellyfish Harry Reid:

REID: I’m saying that the United States Senate, Democrats and Republicans, do not want terrorists to be released in the United States. That’s very clear. QUESTION: No one’s talking about releasing them. We’re talking about putting them in prison somewhere in the United States. REID: Can’t put them in prison unless you release them. QUESTION: Sir, are you going to clarify that a little bit? I mean (OFF-MIKE). REID: I can’t -- I can’t -- I can’t make it any more clear than the statement I have given to you. We will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States. I think the majority -- I speak for the majority of the Senate.

The fact that we have and have had mass murderers, islamic and domestic terrorists, serial rapists and killers in our prison system and that GITMO represents the absolute very worst of what the Bushies did in America's name mean very little to Harry Reid. The man hasn't taken a stand in his entire sorry career in the Senate.

A small glimmer of hope may be that his home state is starting to see him for what he really is and re-election will be a challenge.

About a third of the state's voters would re-elect Reid if the 2010 election were held today, according to the poll, but 45 percent say they would definitely vote to replace him. Seventeen percent would consider another candidate.

At this point I would prefer to lose the seat to Republicans in order to vacate the wasted space.

Late Note

I know its Tuesday. Caught Sen. Jon Kyl on This Week this past Sunday. He seemed awfully reasonable and willing to work with Obama for a Republican Senator. Must have missed the memo.

Slip sliding away...

I'm very curious to see what the Rs reaction to Gallup's new party ID poll will be. Do they continue to thrash with Limbaugh and the two Cheneys at the forefront, do they re brand AGAIN, do they concede, ignore, what? They have lost ground in every single category besides the attend church weekly crowd. The huge losses in the college graduate and 18-29 categories are expected but the massive losses in the mid-west and less than 30K income annually groups should be sending shock waves through the GOP.

Update:

Looks like at least Michael Steele is going to take the ignore route. His Politico piece titled : The Republican Party turns a corner lists the three ways Republicans are turning the corner, including this:

Third, the Republican Party will seize upon momentum for a GOP resurgence that is already underway in states and local communities. I have travelled extensively since being elected RNC chairman, meeting with state party leaders and grassroots activists alike. There is genuine enthusiasm for a Republican balance to the reckless excesses of the president and congressional Democrats. I believe the Republican Party can ride that wave of local enthusiasm to victory in upcoming elections.

As an ardent Obama supporter and Democrat I hope Michael Steele's tenure as Chairman of the RNC is a long and prosperous one. Another Update: After reading a few times I wondered, if Steele is so firm a believer in NOT looking to the past why is every other word out of his mouth Ronald Reagan?

Hack!

Wannabe Drudge look alike Mark Halperin crushed the ball out of the park with this one...Not! HALPERIN'S TAKE: Don't Be Surprised If.... The list includes:

3. Someone you had assumed would win a gubernatorial primary doesn't. 4. Someone you had assumed would win a senatorial primary doesn't. 5. The White House continues to use Fridays to bury bad news.

Could he be more of a genius!!? Genius I say!! Let's add: 1. I will not win the MegaMillions on Tuesday 2. I will turn 40 this year and the end all killer prediction of the year.... 3. The sun will come out tomorrow. What a dick.

Who polices the press con't...

or better titled: Another reason why I'm happy the New York Times is going out of business and the Pulitzer is worthless. Every school in the country makes a special point to make sure students understand the consequences for plagiarism. Even my twins got a lecture and a take home that had to be signed by me on the subject and they are in the 6th grade. This is not a subject where ignorance of the rule is allowed. But, if your Maureen Dowd of the NY Times its an OK practice as long as you plagiarize only people you know and like. Hacks begone. The whole saga can been seen here on TPM.

Collecting Memories

"If you take a book with you on a journey," Mo had said when he put the first one in her box, "an odd thing happens: The book begins collecting your memories. And forever after you have only to open that book to be back where you first read it. It will all come into your mind with the very first words: the sights you saw in that place, what it smelled like, the ice cream you ate while you were reading it...yes, books are like flypaper-memories cling to the printed page better than anything else." from Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Reading with my children

Silent companions of the lonely hour, Friends, who can never alter or forsake, Who for inconstant roving have no power, And all neglect, perforce, must calmly take,-- Let me return to you; this turmoil ending Which worldly cares have in my spirit wrought, And, o'er your old familiar pages bending, Refresh my mind with many a tranquil thought: Till, haply meeting there, from time to time, Fancies, the audible echo of my own, 'Twill be like hearing in a foreign clime My native language spoke in friendly tone, And with a sort of welcome I shall dwell On these, my unripe musings, told so well.

-Caroline Norton

I've talked about this before. My childhood home was filled with great books and if nothing else inspired a great love for reading in me that has thankfully passed on to my twins. We have great fun reading together and have made a bit of a game out of it. Here's what we do: I read everything they read when they are reading it and then we have lots to talk about together. It's magical really, I never run out of things to talk to the twins about. Every other book (or series of books) they read is recommended by me that way I can introduce my favorites to them and vise versa. For example, my daughter is reading Memnoch the Devil which is a continuation from my recommendation of Interview with a Vampire which I based on her enjoyment of the Twilight series (she agrees, Edward wouldn't stand a chance against Lestat ;-), my son is reading Inkspell which is of his choosing and I am reading both. From time to time I think I'll add gems from our literary pursuits here, maybe a passage we liked or a recommendation here and there. Won't be doing reviews since although books may be disliked based on preference there is no such thing as a bad book.

The deadly politics of sounding rational

Obama is continuing to transform the politics of a generation with the same consistent and inclusive message that won him the election. The more he reaches out, refuses to be baited into harshly criticizing the opposition, the more he calls for the importance of common ground and compromise the more power he builds behind his message, his platform and his agenda. Conversely, the Republican party has yet to realize that the more they rage, roadblock and disagree for disagreement's sake the more attractive, rational and inviting President Obama looks. Brilliantly he has them trapped. Further irrational disagreement will only continue to alienate moderates and independents. The only way out of the spiral Republicans have created for themselves is to join with Obama on at least some key issues and in doing so will hand Obama his greatest political victory to date. The Notre Dame speech yesterday is a brilliant example of words as a weapon. Transcript: Obama's Notre Dame speech

Unfortunately, finding that common ground -- recognizing that our fates are tied up, as Dr. King said, in a "single garment of destiny" -- is not easy. And part of the problem, of course, lies in the imperfections of man -- our selfishness, our pride, our stubbornness, our acquisitiveness, our insecurities, our egos; all the cruelties large and small that those of us in the Christian tradition understand to be rooted in original sin.

He just defined the moral failings of his opposition.

This ain't checkers, its chess.

Utah Governor to Become Ambassador to China And just like that, the Republicans are back to the drawing board for 2012. More importantly, its one more outspoken moderate who just switched sides. Limabaugh's response will no doubt isolate and insult any remaining moderates leaving them ripe for picking off by an Obama administration that is playing masterfully. Update: One point before I seem overconfident. The Democratic Party has the singular ability to shoot itself in the foot better than any other organized group on the planet. With leaders in place like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi you can guarantee somebody is going to trip on the train on the way to the altar. The Ds are their own worst enemy.

Tomorrow may never come.

But today is an amazing day. Number three graduated from Pre-K, the weather is perfect. I think I'm gonna grab a book and sit out by the pool and hang with little man. Y'all enjoy your day too.

McCain and the Rs get some help from Mommy.

Roberta McCain is a real piece of work. In a minute she supports Steele and slams Rush. I wonder if Rush will go after her now too. Will John McCain be forced to apologize? Its As The World Turns in the incredibly shrinking Republican Party folks. Check the video here UPDATE: Rush, in predictable fashion, throws the old lady under a bus. The pure arrogance without acomplishment is mind-numbing. Can you imagine what Obama would have done to any other Republican candidate in 08', Rush's ideal Republican candidate? Murder.

"She's right, she's absolutely right. The Republican Party she belongs to gets shellacked election after election after election."

Benefit of the doubt cont.

Andrew has re-thought his gut reaction on the Obama torture pic reversal. On the money. Thinking Again About Those Photos - And Obama's Rope-A-Dope Ways

The point of the photos is not to demonstrate more gore; it is to have a fresh opening to explain to Americans just how widespread this was, and also to remind them that this led to the deaths of scores. But against this important public interest, the president has another duty - to his soldiers in the line of fire. These soldiers deserve a chance to do their astonishingly difficult job without inflaming those who might be inspired to kill and attack them. I see no reason to suspect that Obama is not genuine about this question, and it's a fair factor to consider. More importantly, he has not said that suppressing the photos at this time means suppressing them for ever, and has not indicated that he will prevent justice being done. In fact, his statement said the opposite.

Obama, Anti-Americanism and Torture

I'm reminding myself right now that its been a little over 100 days and this President has done much to raise confidence here at home and abroad, he is active, and he is working towards keeping many of the promises he made during his historic campaign. For that he is going to get the benefit of the doubt, at least from me. I've begun to think that we Americans are unable to comprehend what it is like to have a President that shows up to work and actually tries to get things done. Nixon's resignation, Reagan's 2nd term in lala land, Bill's inability to keep his pants on and GWB have lowered the standard for American President so far that we as a country are having a really hard time believing this guy might actually be the real deal. It's the old screw me twice adage, we can't possibly be dumb enough to trust our President. And then there's the nasty bits. What is our fascination with seeing the worst in human nature? We are a society clinging and clamoring for the lowest common denominator. Our movies, music, games and television have become increasingly more gratuitously sexual and violent, our gossip and news media (I say news very lightly) aimed more at character destruction in 30 second sound bytes than enlightenment and education of the people. We spend more time fighting over why we are different socially than we do celebrating our similarities and we seem happy to do it! I agree that releasing the torture pictures would shut the Cheney and Limbaugh crowd up and in doing so would help cleanse America of their stink and lies and dishonor. I had a hard time reading the memos, I can only imagine how terrible the actual photos are. But, I agree with Obama in that those photos will also be used to fan the flames of anti-Americanism in the Arab world. It would be just the break our enemies are looking for as all indications point to anti-American sentiment decreasing drastically in recent months due to the calculated approach of President Obama. Maybe in the end I'll feel screwed. Perhaps I'm being naive and in the end he he will be just another President who let me down. Right now though, I don't think so.

Internet Age Writting Course

INTERNET-AGE WRITING SYLLABUS AND COURSE OVERVIEW. BY ROBERT LANHAM

Students will acquire the tools needed to make their tweets glimmer with a complete lack of forethought, their Facebook updates ring with self-importance, and their blog entries shimmer with literary pithiness. All without the restraints of writing in complete sentences. w00t! w00t! Throughout the course, a further paring down of the Hemingway/Stein school of minimalism will be emphasized, limiting the superfluous use of nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions, gerunds, and other literary pitfalls.

For Inner City kids, life always goes on.

When a 15 yr old is senselessly murdered who's to blame? The parents, teachers, America's culture of violence, our Government for being lax on guns, crime and education reform? I don't know, but it doesn't make me feel any less helpless. The children in the picture above turned tragedy into personal triumph but what a sad and all too common a story. From heavy hearts, a song soars

The choir's unexpected triumph brought needed emotional uplift to a small, close-knit school hit hard by a violent act. It also vividly illustrated the resiliency required to be a student in many urban schools and the sheer challenge that students and teachers often face simply to achieve a sense of normalcy.

This is the harsh reality of life in America's inner cities and very little is done to remedy it since the problem is largely contained and rarely pours into affluent suburbs. There is an added component of pure luck that must be factored into survival for kids growing up in our inner cities. Various factors can tip the scales in a kid's favor, great parents, close friends, teachers that care but in the end it could very well come down to wrong place at the wrong time, so sad, too bad. Its the reason I live happily in exile in Georgia. While I recognize anything can happen, even in my own backyard, its far less likely than in Washington Heights and P.S. 132 or I.S. 187.

Daddy Cheney can't forgive an administration that was keeping its promises!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Excuse Me Your Dick Is Out
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Unabashedly Uneducated

I've received more e-mail on this subject than any other since I started this back up again last month and so I've changed the title from "uneducated" to "self-educated". I take great pride in my humble, public school, inner city roots. I'm from the school of hard knocks and have accomplished many things without parental guidance or a real formal education. I've done these things by myself, with the help of a few very important mentors along the way to whom I am eternally grateful and many, many books. When I was a kid growing up in Washington Heights my mother had a ton of books, most of which were her brother's. Great adventure classics mostly, Twain, London, Hemingway, Salinger, Dante, Frost and on and on. I would escape into them. I may be the only kid you will ever meet who would cut class in high school to go to the research library on 41st and 5th open a catalog at random like a dart thrown at a map, pick a subject and spend the day reading. And so that's what I've done and what I still do today, I constantly educate myself. Depending on my work travel I read up to 4 books a week, most every week. I re-read my favorites constantly, always finding new nuances. I couldn't possibly tell you how many times I've read For Whom the Bell Tolls or The Hobbit or To Kill A Mockingbird. This week I'm reading Memnoch The Devil with Cassy, Inkspell with Nick and Tuesdays with Morrie and a Cooking for One cookbook for me. If I am ever curious about a subject or want to learn to do something I buy a book. I constantly tell The Three, and anyone else who will listen, any subject you ever want to learn about can be found in a book. Period.

Fear, doubt, and disbelief. Free your mind.

Just a quick couple of comments on the recent Cheney full court press. I think Dick Cheney is going to succeed in making sure the 20% of people who identify as Republicans are as rock solid a constituency as there every was. I also think if this keeps up it will be a generation before anyone else other than that 20% ever identifies Republican again. I haven't spent a lot of time watching Dick Cheney interviews, but I did catch him on Face the Nation this weekend. I make my living in part by watching and reading people, their vocal inflections, choice of words, body language etc. The guilt and panic and fear is just oozing from the man. And remember, he is a 5 time deferment award winner. Towards the end of the interview, around when he threw GWB under the bus in an attempt to save himself he reminded me of the little kid whose Mom just told him "Wait until your Dad gets home" who then spends the rest of the afternoon talking his way out of that beating he knows he's earned and has coming. Dick Cheney has diarrhea of the mouth so bad I can't remember a single thing any other Republican has said all week. Can you?

Who Polices the Press cont.

Wiki is now suitable source material for the MSM disguised as journalists. Irish student hoaxes world's media with fake quote

"I am 100 percent convinced that if I hadn't come forward, that quote would have gone down in history as something Maurice Jarre said, instead of something I made up," he said. "It would have become another example where, once anything is printed enough times in the media without challenge, it becomes fact." So far, The Guardian is the only publication to make a public mea culpa, while others have eliminated or amended their online obituaries without any reference to the original version — or in a few cases, still are citing Fitzgerald's florid prose weeks after he pointed out its true origin.

The Anonymous Meme Continues...

The Washington Post is the latest to spread the anonymous and slanderous meme regarding Sotomayor's temperament this morning. What exactly IS the standard for journalists these days, the ability to read? The bar seems that low. But, no one polices the press and if we continue to buy it, they will keep shoveling. Hispanics See Stars Aligned on High Court What is most amusing is that the positive and professional commentary regarding Sotomayor is done with referenced sources while the negative, personal and personality based slights are as anonymous as they were in the original Rosen piece.

But she already has felt the glare that comes with being identified as a front-runner, with several unflattering profiles about her temperament and judicial accomplishments.

"Several" as in many. Here Barnes and Shear unscrupulously lead readers to believe there is perhaps truth here based on multiple reports when in fact there was one anonymous and under researched piece by Rosen that has been picked up multiple times AS IF it were fact. They go on to site a source, a completely anonymous one to further the negative hit on Sotomayor.

The remarks about Sotomayor in the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary, where lawyers are quoted without name, are tougher than those about two other appeals court judges who are mentioned among those Obama might consider for the job, Diane P. Wood and Ann C. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, and some who are advising Obama on the choice say the perception that she does not work well with others is one Sotomayor would have to overcome.

Perhaps other candidates have powerful and politically minded supporters working on their behalf. These attaks have two goals, harm Sotomayor in order to raise other profiles on the short list. They are not random as you can see from the snipit above. I've said it before, I have no idea what makes one qualified or appropriate to serve on the SCOTUS but based on the negative whisper campaign against Sotomayor my bullshit radar tells me she is maybe not only the front runner but one of the best available for the job.

Who Polices the Press Cont...

What does it say about the press that there is more coverage and more outrage over this joke by Wanda Sykes:

"Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails, so you're saying, 'I hope America fails', you're, like, 'I don't care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq'. He just wants the country to fail. To me, that's treason. "He's not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying. You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight."

Then there was about the actual quote by Limbaugh that prompted the joke (full transcript here) :

So I'm thinking of replying to the guy, "Okay, I'll send you a response, but I don't need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails."

TNC makes a great point:

Moreover, I think people need to remember the context. Sykes belongs to three groups which Rush has made a career maligning--blacks, gays and women. I don't have time to dig up the Rush-file. But I'm willing to bet that if take together all the abhorrent things Limbaugh has ever said about those three groups and measured them against Sykes few minutes, it wouldn't be a contest.

Wanda is an easy target and she can't fight back. On the other hand Rush is now the great untouchable so much so that its become akin to someone in the rap music industry criticizing Jay-Z or in the movie business criticizing Will Smith. Serious CLM. P.S. The best part of the night was when Michael Steele actually looked proud of Obama making fun of his pretending to be ignorant routine. I don't think he got the joke.

Son, they shook

Perennial blowhard Frank Rich enters the 3rd stage of grieving as he attempts to prolong the demise of his paycheck at the NY Times in his latest op-ed piece.

Yes, journalists have made tons of mistakes and always will. But without their enterprise, to take a few representative recent examples, we would not have known about the wretched conditions for our veterans at Walter Reed, the government’s warrantless wiretapping, the scams at Enron or steroids in baseball.

Tons of mistakes is a massive understatement and so his "but" is offensive. So called journalists were LATE on Walter Reed, warrentless wiretapping, Enron and the steroid mention a joke. They were also completely absentee on torture, WMD intelligence, the run up to Iraq and countless other stories. Embittered, he concludes:

By all means let’s mock the old mainstream media as they preen and party on in a Washington ballroom. Let’s deplore the tabloid journalism that, like the cockroach, will always be with us. But if a comprehensive array of real news is to be part of the picture as well, the time will soon arrive for us to put up or shut up. Whatever shape journalism ultimately takes in America, make no mistake that in the end we will get what we pay for.

I won't mock the old mainstream media, I just don't buy it. And, that's just the point isn't it? Americans no longer pay for the self-appreciating "stenography" pushed out by a newspaper industry that thinks us too stupid to realize what they do is no longer important or relevant. I'll take the "bloviating" blogosphere as Rich calls it. For not being news gathering, they've taken the lead and been uncompromisingly vocal and right about a very many issues in recent memory. The MSM has been relegated to the follower position and in this economy I'd rather just save my money and prefer they just shut up.

Happy Mothers Day now go be a parent.

Granted there are instances in which children have been reared in an atmosphere of inconsistency where value training of any kind was entirely missing; but even in these cases, it is the lack of loving guidance and structure rather than the lack of punitive retribution that has triggered the behavioral manifestations of delinquency. In a high percentage of court cases, there is evidence that the child has met with punishment that has not only been frequent but in many cases excessive. In fact, one of the sources of the child's own inadequate development is the model of open violence provided by the parent who has resorted repeatedly to corporal punishment, usually because of his own limited imagination. This indoctrination into a world where only might makes right and where all strength is invested in the authority of the mother or of the father not only makes it easy for the child to develop aggressive patterns of behavior but makes him emotionally distant and distrustful. -Sydney Smith, quoted by by Karl Menninger in The Crime of Punishment, Viking Press, 1969.

Big Deep Breath

Morning folks.

Racism-Sexism-Perception-Reality

Professor Darren Hutchinson backs up and strips down the Sotomayor story for what it really is, blatent sexism and racism.

Although women are just under 1/2 of the summer associates and associates at law firms, they are just 17% of partners. Women hold roughly 1/4 of federal judgeships, and only one woman sits on the Supreme Court. Considering the impact of race and gender status together reveals even greater disparities. Women of color are virtually unrepresented as partners in the nation's law firms and as members of the judiciary. This is the context in which Sonia Sotomayor and all other female lawyers of color exist.

The full peice is here and compares Scalia who is praised as tough and persistent while very similar behaviors make Sotomayor impatient, tempermental and excitable.

Who polices the press cont.

The pajama wearing, Cheetos eating Blogosphere that's who! It is encouraging to see the non-traditional media take on Rosen, Foer and the rest of his anonymous cronies. The landscape is changing to where the MSM may actually have to consider that lazy, underwritten, shoddily researched and blatantly untrue stories are written at their own peril. If so, the quality of our discourse just got raised. Andrew calls it:

What might have been sent into the ether as a small provocation, summing up a coterie's assumptions, will no longer be given credence because of its provenance. It will have to make its case in a brutally frank environment. Or fail to.

Was Sotomayor an Obama team favorite for the nominee? Will the more factual and researched defense against Rosen and his hit squad be enough to keep her from getting pushed to the wayside if she was? I don't know. So far, Obama has proven himself to be non-confrontational when he can be. Perhaps Rosen and Co. were betting on Obama for this, knowing that the slightest push would send Sotomayor packing. Perhaps Obama was planning on favoring a Chicago native and a Harvard Alumni more readily than a Bronx judge. We will never know. If Sotomayor is not selected was it for legitimate reasons or the result of Rosen's anonymous hit job? Either way her career will have been irreversibly tarnished and for that, there should be some consequence. Glenn Greewald who was perhaps the most aggressive in response to Rosen asks a great question here.

There is a very legitimate question here as to whose reputation Rosen has harmed more -- Sotomayor's or his own.

The attention on the matter is now being turned towards Rosen's ethical fitness, journalistic ability and professionalism, all of which come from credited and quoted sources unlike those used by Rosen to smear Sotomayor. This list is growing, and that is a good thing. He will have to think twice before targeting someones character in this way again. The XX Factor at Slate catches Rosen doing this very same thing, in the same baseless way to Diane Wood in 1995:

But more troubling still, he seems to have been arguing that female jurists are by definition “mediocre” for more than a decade!

His ire has not been limited to women, he has done similar against minorities as well. Only White Males need apply in Rosen's view of the world. The NYTimes Editorial Board jumps in against the preemptive campaign:

The White House has no doubt been reviewing a long list of nominees. When President Obama makes his decision, he should ignore the uninformed and mean-spirited chattering and select the best person for the job.

But, John Cole at Ballon Juice is the winner this morning with this post script to Rosen filed on his blog under "assholes":

Thanks, dick.

I call bullshit

Rosen responds, weakly here. He starts off with the "The other guy did it" defense.

As soon as the piece was published, I regretted the headline, which I hadn't seen in advance.

and then this, which is just pure bullshit.

The piece was not meant to be a definitive "case against" Judge Sotomayor's candidacy. It was intended to convey questions about her judicial temperament that sources had expressed to me in the preceding weeks.

The peice was called "The Case Against Sotomayor". He goes on to use his explaination peice as a way of continuing the hit job on Sotomayor except this time he tries to lend more power to it by stressing the lefty creds and a few non specific details of his anonymous sources. Glenn Greewald's response is stellar and dead on and worth a complete read. Click here. Pwned:

Why couldn't these "eminent legal scholars" who have such close familiarity with Sotomayor's work speak on the record and express their concerns? How cowardly are they? They care enough about smearing Sotomayor to call Rosen out of the blue, "express concerns" about her behavior, and do the legwork of putting Rosen in touch with their handpicked friends who also don't like Sotomayor -- but they're afraid to speak publicly on such a matter of public interest? They don't sound like "eminent liberal legal scholars" to me; they sound like cowardly character assassins carrying out a vendetta that Rosen eagerly helped to advance.

and....

In other words, Rosen did what the modern journalist of the Respectable Intellectual Center does by definition: he wrote down what Serious People told him to say, agreed to protect their identity, and then published their very purposeful chatter without doing any real work to verify, investigate or scrutinize it. As a result, a woman who spent the last four decades of her life using her talents and intellect and working extremely hard to reach amazing heights in the face of great obstacles is now widely viewed as an intellectually deficient, stunted, egotistical affirmative-action beneficiary who has no business being on the Supreme Court -- all thanks to the slimy work of Jeffrey Rosen, his cowardly friends of the Respectable Intellectual Center, and The New Republic.

Opinions in the Washington Examiner are more racist then they appear...

These days Colbert and Stewart are pushing out the best actual journalism on TV.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Tip/Wag - Forced Smoking & Grizzly Best Man
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Gay Marriage

Who Polices The Press?

Glenn Greenwald @ Salon body slams the Rosen piece and the ensuing MSM meme regarding Sotomayor. It's worth a complete read. Jeffrey Rosen, TNR and the anonymous smears against Sonia Sotomayor The sum of journalism in American today:

Sotomayor's decades of achievement in the face of overwhelming obstacles just gets dismissed with a few slothful, totally irresponsible smears from Rosen and his invisible friends. But that's how "journalism" so often works -- people are allowed to remain hidden while their views and assertions are uncritically amplified in the loudest venues and bestowed with an authoritative veneer that they absolutely do not merit.

His follow-ups on the subject are equally stomach wrenching. Turns out Rosen's so called anonymous source may have been his brother-in-law Neil Katyal who stand to benefit greatly by knocking Sotomayor out of the running. What the reputation of one Latina when getting ahead in the world is at stake huh Jeff?

Jeffrey Rosen's brother-in-law is Neal Katyal, the current Deputy Solicitor General in the Obama administration. If Sotomayor's prospects are torpedoed, that could clear the way for one of the other leading candidates to be named to the Court: current Solicitor General Elena Kagan. The selection of Kagan (rather than Sotomayor) would almost certainly result in Rosen's brother-in-law (Katyal) becoming Solicitor General.

My Daughter is still a Latina..

Adam Serwer makes the best cast against the substance less torpedoing of Sotomayor and for Affirmative Action here.

In short, everyone agrees that Sotomayor is an idiot, based on an anonymous quote solicited by Rosen, who admits that he hasn't "read enough of Sonia Sotomayor’s opinions to have a confident sense of them," and that he hasn't "talked to enough of Sonia Sotomayor’s detractors and supporters to get a fully balanced picture of her strengths." This is exactly what affirmative action is meant to correct: People coming to the arbitrary conclusion that someone is "an idiot" despite all evidence to the contrary, except if you consider not being a white man evidence. Sotomayor's detractors see themselves as Frank Riccis, white men whose greatness isn't recognized because we're too busy giving brown people who can't tie their shoes certificates of achievement. But the truth is that in life and in employment, discrimination rarely manifests itself the way it did against Ricci, as something as easy to quantify as an unfair test. It's far more insidious -- a rumor, a feeling, a notion that the person standing in front of you who doesn't look like you is just "dumb and obnoxious." So you throw their resume in the "no" pile because you don't like their name, you seat them in the back of the class, you promote another person. You just can't really explain why. It's... just a feeling.

My daughter is a Latina.

Let me first say that I have no idea if Sonia Sotomayor is qualified or appropriate for the SCOTUS. But, I rage against the fact that as soon as the Right viewed her as the front runner for the nomination they immediately and in a coordinated fashion ala Rovian politics, attacked her strictly for being female (irrational and moody) and Hispanic (hot blooded, lacks self-control etc). There is more, but oh wait, this blog post isn't about race or sex, its actually about merit and temperament by former Sotomayor clerk Professor Rob Kar, Professor of Law and Philosophy at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

She knows how to pull out the best in people with whom she works, how to motivate people through her words and conduct, and how to forge deep and abiding relationships with people from all walks of life, and from all political stripes and ideologies. She is courageous and fearless, but non-ideological, and wholly unimpressed by the kind of pomp and false theoretical excess that can sometimes make one look smarter in the short term but only at the expense of distorting the underlying issues. One measure of the extraordinary judgment she has is reflected in her incredible life story: she moved unerringly, and without any hint of doubt or hesitation, from the Bronxdale Public Housing Projects to graduating summa cum laude from Princeton, where she received the Pynes Prize (for their top graduate), and then to Yale Law School, the DA’s office, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The force of character that it takes to live such a life should never be underestimated: we have no other person on the bench with her experience and intellect who has come from these beginnings and who has developed with such clarity of purpose and vision.

The comparisons to Obama's campaign are interesting but only so much as it shows the repetitive and unimaginative way the Right attacks minorities they view as threats. Racism is a core tenent of the Republican party and they are proud to use it.

Racism- Spreads like cancer.

I generally think Chris Matthews is alright but he showed some true colors last night in regards to Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Will he go to the usual cookie cutter. He's supposed to pick a latina, a hispanic woman, would be a woman. Would he do that just because that's sort of the unfilled void in his patronage plan so far?

His patronage plan? Cookie cutter? WTF! Digby gets him here ...Money quote:

It's quite clear that contrary to what Matthews says, the cookie cutter choice is a white male. To say that Obama is being predictable by considering women and men of color is bizarroworld nonsense that only people in the insular beltway bubble would blurt out as if it makes sense.

Or those who are just patently and ignorantly racist.