Jesse Ventura says what he really feels about Sotomayor, Franken, Palin (“I would never vote for her”), Michael Jackson, politician’s private lives (“They spent $100 million to discover Bill Clinton cheated on Hillary, when on 9/11 they only allocated $4 million to find out who killed 3,000 people”), and Obama (“He’s doing a heck of a lot better than his predecessor did”).
Senator Bernie Sanders makes the excellent point. The Republicans try to scare us that socialized medicine will be terrible, but the truth is that we already have socialized medicine in this country — it is run by the Veterans Administration. If any politician tried to get rid of the VA health benefits, they would quickly lose their job.
Likewise, the Republicans try to scare us that single payer health insurance will be horrible, but the truth is that we already have single payer health insurance in this country — it is called Medicare. And any politician who tried to get rid of Medicare would also find themselves quickly out of a job. In fact, even Dubya added a prescription benefit to Medicare.
So when Republicans try to scare you by throwing around terms like single payer or socialized medicine, it isn’t because they won’t work or won’t be popular, they are scared that they will work and they will be popular. Of course, that’s if the Republicans don’t manage to purposely make health care reform horrible (like they did with the prescription drug benefit they added to Medicare).
UPDATE: The Anonymous Liberal makes the point that in order “to adopt the Republican position on health care requires believing that every other country in the world is wrong, that their policy experts are misguided and their citizens confused. Indeed it requires believing that the American people themselves are wrong, that despite endless opinion polls to the contrary, people in this country really love the system we have.”
An excellent article at Five Thirty Eight points out that while conservatives claim that the Democrats want to appoint “liberal activist judges” to the Supreme Court, statistically, the most activist court in in modern history was the Rehnquist Court, a conservative court.
The same article points out how the make-up of the court — conservative v. liberal — has strongly affected their decisions. In fact, “The whole point of the Court is to rule laws unconstitutional based on justices applying their philosophical interpretations of the Constitution.” Thus, the ritual hazing of Supreme Court nominees, which requires them to promise that they will strictly adhere to the rule of law and judicial precedent, is nonsense. “The attempt to somehow disconnect what the justices actually do and what the nominees must promise they won’t do is a magnificent farce that insults all of us.”
UPDATE: Russ Feingold speaks to this issue head-on, and does a great job!
At this point, perhaps we should all accept that the best definition of a ‘judicial activist’ is a judge who decides a case in a way you don’t like.
After Sonia Sotomayor mentioned that as a child she loved watching Perry Mason on TV, and that it inspired her interest in the law, (new Senator) Al Franken got some laughs with his observation:
It amazes me that you wanted to become a prosecutor based on the show, because in ‘Perry Mason’ the prosecutor on that show lost every week.
However, there was one episode where Perry Mason lost, but as you can see from the following video, neither Sotomayor nor Franken could remember the name of the episode:
Now, what’s really ironic of all this silliness is that the Associated Press not only knew the name of the episode — “The Case of the Deadly Verdict” — but they pointed out that the guest star in that show was Stephen Franken, an actor who is Al Franken’s second cousin!
As an added bonus, here’s a flashback of Franken playing a senator during a previous confirmation hearing:
“President Obama had a private, 35-minute meeting at the Vatican with Pope Benedict. That’s right, folks, the man considered by many followers to be infallible had a meeting with Pope Benedict.” – Conan O’Brien
“I don’t know if you’re following this, but earlier today, in Vatican City, President Obama had a historic meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. … Or, as Fox News is reporting it, ‘Obama Caught With Old Man in Dress.'” – Conan O’Brien
“Of course, the President’s in Africa now. This is a big story. CNN’s Anderson Cooper landed an exclusive interview with President Obama in Ghana. … So now, Obama’s challenge will be to somehow pick Anderson Cooper out of a crowd of Africans.” – Conan O’Brien
“You folks worried about North Korea? … Everybody is getting paranoid about North — I took Mom to see the fireworks and every time they set off a big one, she’d scream, ‘It’s North Korea!'” – David Letterman
“It’s frightening times, when you think about it, with all these dictators. And they are all smallish. They’re all on the small side. Kim Jong-Il, tiny guy. Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, tiny guy. Mayor Bloomberg, tiny guy.” – David Letterman
“But anyway, over the weekend, North Korea test-fired several missiles. And it was their way of saying: ‘Iran’s not the craziest country. We are the craziest country, so get ready.'” – David Letterman
“Bristol Palin’s former fiance, Levi Johnston, told the press that he thinks Sarah Palin stepped down as governor so she could cash in on fame. Levi made this accusation while hosting a party in the Hamptons for Tommy Bahama dark rum.” – Conan O’Brien
“I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, but in this country, people are getting fatter. But now, to add insult to injury, or injury to insult, they have isolated the fattest state in the United States. Yup. Mississippi. And I thought, well, this is no surprise. You know the state motto of Mississippi? Right there on the flag, it says, ‘Are you gonna finish that?'” – David Letterman
“Good news for GM today. They emerged from bankruptcy and the newly appointed CEO said that the company will now build cars that Americans want. After hearing this, GM employees said, ‘You can tell this guy’s new around here.'” – Conan O’Brien
“But General Motors announced that they are out of bankruptcy after selling nearly 10,000 Camaros. At a press conference, the head of GM said, ‘Thank goodness for coke dealers.'” – Conan O’Brien
“You know anything about — we had a guy in town, he’s gone away to jail now for 150 years — Bernie Madoff? And now the U.S. government has started trying to find out about his wife, who had, like, $87 million. And she kept saying, now this is not money that Bernie swiped. This is not — this is not money that he swindled. This is not swindling money. You see, this is money I saved by switching to Geico. They said, ‘What?! That’s — how is that possible lady?'” – David Letterman
“So they took all of that money and she’s down to $2.5 million. But I was thinking, you know, with that and her Social Security and the $10 billion she has hidden in the Cayman Islands, well, she should be all right.” – David Letterman
“But Ruth Madoff says she had no idea what Bernie was up to. And I thought, well, what a coincidence, neither did the SEC.” – David Letterman
“But Ruth — listen to this — Ruth lost her house. Ruth lost her house, lost her car; has lost her savings. I mean, I’m telling you, it’s like being a Bernie Madoff client.” – David Letterman
It is part of the game of politics that Republicans will attack Judge Sotomayor — heck, they attacked Obama’s nominee even before he announced who it was — but for Jeff Sessions, it is not a game, it’s personal. But the Republicans should know that when an attack gets personal, people make mistakes. And Senator Jeff Sessions pulled a whopper of a mistake today. As the Wall Street Journal put it, “Ouch!”.
In Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, Sessions brought up (for the umpteenth time) Sotomayor’s “Wise Latina” remark from 2001, and tried to contrast it with the view of Judge Miriam Cedarbaum, who “believes that judges must transcend their personal sympathies and prejudices.” Sessions then delivered his money quote: “So I would say to you, I believe in Judge Cedarbaum’s formulation.”
Who is this Judge Cedarbaum? Back in 1986, Sessions and Cedarbaum were both nominated by Reagan to the federal bench. Cedarbaum — a pioneering woman lawyer — was confirmed, but the nomination of Sessions never made it out of committee, with even his home state Senator voting against him. It is ironic that what got him in trouble back then were a string of racist remarks and jokes. Sessions once joked that the KKK wouldn’t be so bad but for their use of marijuana, and called the NAACP communist-inspired. How hypocritical is it that Sessions is the Republican leading the attack against Sotomayor, saying that her “Wise Latina” remark would prevent her from being an impartial judge.
But Sessions was about to get pwned. Sotomayor surprised Sessions by responding:
My friend Judge Cedarbaum is here. We are good friends, and I believe that we both approach judging in the same way, which is looking at the facts of each individual case and applying the law to those facts.
To make it even more embarrasing, Cedarbaum herself agreed:
I don’t believe for a minute that there are any differences in our approach to judging, and her personal predilections have no effect on her approach to judging.
Ouch!
UPDATE: Gail Collins in the NY Times has a hilarious fake transcript of the first two days of confirmation hearings. My favorite line is when Lindsey Graham asks Sotomayor for the umpteenth time about the “Wise Latina” remark and Sotomayor responds:
I appreciate that the man who once said he’d drown himself if North Carolina went for Obama has a special contribution to make when it comes to the importance of thinking before you speak.
UPDATE2:
Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks, who is not gay:
You know, all three of us spend a lot of time covering politicians and they’re all emotional freaks. They’re guaranteed to invade your personal space, touch you. I sat next to a Republican senator once at dinner and he had his hand on my inner thigh the whole time.
Conservative The Atlantic columnist Andrew Sullivan, who is gay:
Mercifully, I avoid dinners with Republican senators. It’s usually far too gay a scene for me.
“Latest rumor in the entertainment industry is that Sarah Palin may be getting her own TV show. Experts say it will be perfect for TV viewers who find Paula Abdul too coherent.” – Conan O’Brien
“Sarah Palin no longer governor of Alaska, and it looks now, like she may get her own television program, you know. And I was thinking I don’t know, she seems pretty camera shy.” – David Letterman
“But here’s what I can tell you about having your own TV show. Sarah, if you’re watching, and you get a TV show, you gotta be very careful what you say on the air, because you can get yourself into a lot of trouble, okay?” – David Letterman
“Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she sees no need for a House resolution in praise of Michael Jackson. Pelosi added, ‘Isn’t it enough that I’m slowly starting to look like him?'” – Conan O’Brien
“Now how about this guy? That Osama bin Laden, what a guy. And turns out now his first wife — and he had, like, 30 or 40 wives — well, his first wife has written a book about being married to a bin Laden. And she says that she suspected the marriage was in trouble when he told her he was going for a hike on the Appalachian Trail.” – David Letterman
“Najwa is her name, Najwa, and she said they had a lovely wedding. Friends got together and tied tin cans to the back of their camel.” – David Letterman
“The latest figures show that because of the bad economy, homelessness in the suburbs is increasing. So the next time you hear something rustling around in your trash, it could be one of the ‘Real Housewives of New Jersey.” – Conan O’Brien
“Pizza Hut has announced they are rebranding themselves as ‘The Hut.’ When asked why, a spokesman for Pizza Hut said they are tired of watching customers get winded when saying the full name.” – Conan O’Brien
“This week in Moscow, President Obama and President Medvedev agreed to cut the United States and Russia’s nuclear stockpiles by a third. They also agreed to cut Medvedev’s name by a ‘dev.’ It’s going to be Medved.” – Conan O’Brien
“Oh, by the way, President Obama is in Italy attending the world summit, the G8 summit leaders. And meanwhile, in Arizona, Senator John McCain sat on his porch waving at cars.” – David Letterman
“And as you know, in the G8 summit, the world leaders get together, there’s usually a big protest. Not so many protests this year in Italy. However, there was one small Fire Dave rally.” – David Letterman
“But the G8 leaders all said, ‘Oh, look out, what are we going to do? The Earth is getting hot, getting hot, getting very, very hot.’ And they also warned that Megan Fox is ‘getting too hot.'” – David Letterman
“World leaders pledged to stop global warming. They said, ‘Yeah we got to stop global warming.’ And they all said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ Then they got on their private planes and flew home. So that’ll nip that in the bud.” – David Letterman
Leave it to The Onion to take what is actually reality and push it to its (il)logical and hilarious extreme. Watch this video of hypothetical political pundits who change their tune based on instant feedback from the audience. Is this really so different from what pundits already do, except just a little more real time?
You can’t make up stuff like this.
Randal Pinkett, who was the winner in season four of the television show “The Apprentice” (yes, the one featuring The Donald), is likely to become the running mate for Jon Corzine’s reelection as governor of New Jersey. Besides winning a job from Donald Trump on the show, Pinkett was one of twelve people named by Cory Booker, the mayor-elect of Newark, to lead his transition team.
What’s next? America’s Top Politician? Survivor, where the winner is named as ambassador to the country where the show is filmed? A new version of American Idol, where the contestants compete to give the best political speech? Yet another spin-off from CSI, investigating political corruption? A revival of Candid Camera that catches politicians with their mistresses? Desperate Political Wives? Personally, I’d like to see something like The Gong Show that we can use to get rid of politicians we don’t like.
Federal disclosure records show that the health care industry is spending more than $1.4 million dollars a day to defeat health care reform.
We’ve had two very good examples recently of something that, when taken out of context, causes a vastly different reaction than if it is taken in context:
Example One: Is Obama just a guy?
Last week, a photograph flashed across the internet, which appears to show Obama checking something out:
This photo is pretty funny; after all, few males can claim to be innocent of doing the same thing. Even French President Nicolas Sarkozy seems to be amused at Obama sneaking a look.
But just watch this short video of the same thing:
If Obama looked at the woman at all, it was very fleeting. However, Sarkozy doesn’t fare as well in the video. But this example is fairly innocent. After all, even if Obama did stare (which he didn’t) is it so horrible if he did?
Example Two: Is Sotomayor racist?
This is a more serious example of something being taken out of context. Conservatives have attacked Sonia Sotomayor as a racist for her 2001 statement:
I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.
Taken out of context, one could argue that this might be an offensive statement. Certainly, a reverse of this statement, said by a white male, would be offensive (“I would hope that a wise white male with the richness of his experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a Latina woman who hasn’t lived that life.”) It also sounds like Sotomayor is saying that Latina women have richer experiences than white males.
But again, context is everything. Sotomayor was specifically talking about the importance of diversity in judging race and sex discrimination cases. In this context, is it wrong to say that minorities or females might have had “richer” experiences with race or sex discrimination? If anything, Sotomayor was being diplomatic.
Since this article is about context, here’s the context for that remark:
In our private conversations, Judge Cedarbaum has pointed out to me that seminal decisions in race and sex discrimination cases have come from Supreme Courts composed exclusively of white males. I agree that this is significant but I also choose to emphasize that the people who argued those cases before the Supreme Court which changed the legal landscape ultimately were largely people of color and women. I recall that Justice Thurgood Marshall, Judge Connie Baker Motley, the first black woman appointed to the federal bench, and others of the NAACP argued Brown v. Board of Education. Similarly, Justice Ginsburg, with other women attorneys, was instrumental in advocating and convincing the Court that equality of work required equality in terms and conditions of employment.
Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my colleague Judge Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice O’Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am not so sure Justice O’Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.
Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society. Until 1972, no Supreme Court case ever upheld the claim of a woman in a gender discrimination case. I, like Professor Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. As Judge Cedarbaum pointed out to me, nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown.
However, to understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give. For others, their experiences limit their ability to understand the experiences of others. Other simply do not care. Hence, one must accept the proposition that a difference there will be by the presence of women and people of color on the bench. Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.
Not so bad, is it?
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