If Jake Tapper didn’t exist what would ABC do for an honest media voice?
Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category
The headline says it all…
Posted: May 30, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/newsTags: double standards, irony, just deserts, obama, reality, sotomayor
The Best news I’ve heard in years
Posted: May 30, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/newsTags: islam, life is good, War on Terror
I am very pleased to read this:
Moderate followers of Islam said the protest played into the hands of extreme right-wing groups and made their day-to-day lives on the streets of Luton more difficult.
Yesterday, after weeks of rising tensions sparked by the protest, members of the two groups of Muslims clashed.
Qadeer Baksh, chairman of the Islamic Centre in Luton, said a group of around 200 moderate followers descended on Bury Park in the town – where the extremists regularly preach from a stall – to drive the protesters away.
This is exactly the thing that will prevent the catastrophe that I’ve been worrying about. It is vital that we support such people without marginalizing them within Islam.
More please
Thomas Nast, Obama and Judge Sotomayor
Posted: May 30, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/newsTags: conservatism fights back, history, just deserts, obama, reality, sotomayor
The attempt to silence critics of president Obama pick of Judge Sotomayor have run into into two large snags. One of them is Rush Limbaugh who the administration foolishly elevated, cowardly ducks, and has actually driven listeners to. His listing of democratic reactions to Janice Rodgers Brown and Alito are devastating to the above the fray arguments.
The second is the Thomas Nast like quality of Judge Sotomayor’s own statements. Boss Tweed knew that even the illiterate in New York understood “Those damn pictures”.
It helped lead to his downfall.
Like the Nast Cartoon pictured Sotomayor’s statement is devastating to her and the White Houses cause because it is easily understood by any person of any education. Some democratic analysts understood this right away. Attempts to spin it or “contextualize” it are doomed because the average person who doesn’t follow politics knows exactly what it means.
This is why the White house and media are slowly showing signs of concern.
I predict that within a few days the media will all decide it was a minor case of “mispeaking” and try to move on. We will see if it works.
They are just lucky there is not a youtube video of her saying it. That would be the stake through the heart.
I’m not a professor of anything…
Posted: May 30, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/newsTags: conservatism fights back, just deserts, reality, sotomayor
…but I think this argument is pretty weak:
If Sotomayor is unfit for the bench because she concedes that she struggles to remove herself from her own experiences, then O’Connor and Scalia are unfit as well because they believe the Court should not stop jurors from making decisions based on the own backgrounds and previous experiences.
Read the whole thing, it is one thing for a judge to state that you can’t remove a person’s life experiences from a juror’s judgment. (You can’t) It is a totally different thing to state that a particular racial or ethnic judgment is superior to another due to race.
The bottom line is Judge Sotomayor’s statement is indefensible and the “so’s your old man” argument isn’t going to wash. Very intelligent liberal voices know this, so the path of the argument has to change. This argument for example that rebuts the “radical” charge is solid but doesn’t address the question on the floor.
I repeat my question. If Judge Sotomayor’s was a white male who made such a statement publicly would that disqualify such a candidate for even a lower judgeship than Judge Sotomayor currently holds? Anyone Bueller? Bueller?
