Massachusetts grinds to a halt as EMK is mourned, scorned

I have to be honest.  I didn’t know that Senator Kennedy had succumbed to brain cancer until I walked by a newspaper machine at about ten in the morning yesterday.  I don’t think I’ve ever felt quite so out of touch.  Since jzuk (resident obituary writer) hasn’t penned anything about Kennedy’s death — justifiably, since he’s fielded pretty much every other notable personage who has passed this year — I’ll go ahead and type a few words.

CNN can finally retire “Latina Justice” infographic

Yesterday (6 August) Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed in a 68-31 vote as the 111th Supreme Court Justice.  She will be sworn in tomorrow (8 August) by Chief Justice Roberts.  Guess which side of the aisle voted unanimously to confirm, and which side largely opposed her (with only nine exceptions).

Sotomayor Hearing Live Blog: Cardin

Cardin gave me nothing of any interest.  Just doing a little nodding.

Little moment of humor from the chair.

Sotomayor Hearing Live Blog: Suprising honesty from Graham

Graham talking sensibly?  I know it’s oddly ramblin’  but he’s flat out being honest.  I appreciate that in him, even if I disagree almost entirely with his policies.

Also, I’m surprising that the looking into a person’s heart idea is being brought up, all it does is remind me of Bush/Putin.

Ok, now he’s all strange, but the really interesting thing, is he’s making the statement “Obama won, that matters”.  I wondering if he’ll buck the party.

Sotomayor Hearing Live Blog: Yewed?

I think Schumer is taking a poor track by arguing that Roberts was poorly vetted, or by arguing against Kyl.  Possibly my own problem, I would have called his ass out for suggesting that the President hates the Constitution.

Also the accent kills me.

Sotomayor Hearing Live Blog: the idiocy of Jon Kyl

Posting while listening to Kyl’s polemic smearing Sotomayor as a racist, and implying Barack Obama wants to supersede the rule of law in exchange for ruling by “the heart”.

This is idiotic, anyone with the most basic understanding of law understands that it is open to interpretation.  For every ruling, it’s possible to find a contrary precedent, ruling or even interpretation of statute.

Oh yeah — the military doesn’t give a c**p either.

Faithful (and brilliant) co-admin scrahan posted this comment in response to my article on the DADT-foot dragging.  It’s a very good point, and one I failed to address yesterday. 

Tomate, I think I can make a stab at the (presumably rhetorical) question you posed at the end of this, “Why drag feet on DADT, when the majority of American’s accept the idea of openly gay servicemen and women?” In this case, it’s not whether the majority of American’s are comfortable with it; the question is, are the majority of military, or likely military personnel comfortable.

 I don’t have those numbers, but the conventional thinking (trans. pulling this from my ass and/or heard some homeless guy ranting about it on the sidewalk) is that those are the people who feel strongly about this issue, and would be offended to serve with openly gay servicemen. Is it a good argument? No, soldiers didn’t like blacks or women serving, and both are now integral (if not always, in the case of women, well-integrated. The DOD’s recent study on rape in the military is a pretty harrowing read) members of the military.

 But at least it is an argument, one I would love to see you shred to pieces. At your convenience, my good sir.

Gladly, my good sir.  Gladly.

New Majority Leader in our Fantasy Senate

Faithful admin scrahan, in his warning to fellow progressives that we have not entered a liberal Mecca, commented on the overall uselessness of Harry Reid.  Like many in DC at the time of the great Congressional switch of 2006, I was intrigued by the idea of a Majority Leader Hillary Rodham Clinton (obviously a non-starter at this point given her latest, and possibly more illustrious post as SoS).

Jzuk and I have proceeded to bandy about possible replacements for Reed.  Feel free to join us!  In fact, we actively invite all y’all to do so.  To get the ball rolling we initially suggested:

• Barbara Boxer
• Chuck Schumer
• Russ Feingold
• Claire McCaskill

Your turn.

ETA: I realized that I’ve been misspelling the four-letter surnamed Harry Reid’s name while, ironically, going to great lengths (read: googling her) to ensure I got McCaskill’s name right.  My English teachers would be proud.