David Corn

Current Senators Voted 35-11 to Confirm Sotomayor in 1998

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

*****

This might get interesting

DC,

You watch David shuster? He has lower ratings than ORielly repeats on a holiday. Oh wait, they cancelled Shusters show~~

Obama put up Sotomayor to divert attention away from his lack of response to North Korea, Iran wanting to debate him at UN, Isreal telling him to take a hike on settlements, Hugo selling uranium to Iran.

Good political diversion!

49% Oppose Closing Guantanamo Prison Camp (38% Favor)

Rasmussen Reports ^ | May 26, 2009

Forty-nine percent (49%) of voters nationwide now disagree with President Barack Obama’s decision to close the prison camp for suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, conducted after the President’s speech on Guantanamo last week, shows that 38% agree with his decision. Just 25% share the President’s view that the Guantanamo camp weakened national security. Fifty-one percent (51%) disagree with that perspective. And, by a 57% to 28% margin, voters oppose moving any of the suspected terrorists to prisons in the United States.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ouch!

Hope, Change & Marxism: Did Obama Target GOP Donors In Chrysler Dealer Closings?

Today's Hope and Change--

Doug Ross looked at the possibility that the Obama Administration may have targeted GOP donors in deciding which Chrysler dealerships would have to close their doors.
Doug noted that every single dealer he checked out except one were either GOP donors or donated to Obama's rivals in the democratic primary.

UPDATE: Chrysler Dealership owner Jim Anderer was on with Neil Cavuto.
Jim's dealership is being shut down.
Anderer noted that the closings didn't make any sense and that many of them were profitable. Anderer says the country was shutting down his business. He couldn't understand how they were making their decision on which dealerships they were closing:

Obama Administration Outsources Torture

For all of his belly-aching and political posturing about torture, it was reported today that Barack Obama is outsourcing torture to Middle East regimes.
STACLU reported:

When it comes to outsourcing, Obama is the king. He is outsourcing auto jobs to China. He outsourced the Generational Theft Act to Nancy Pelosi and Company. And, he is outsourcing interrogation, and possible torture.

The United States is now relying heavily on foreign intelligence services to capture, interrogate and detain all but the highest-level terrorist suspects seized outside the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to current and former American government officials.

The change represents a significant loosening of the reins for the United States, which has worked closely with allies to combat violent extremism since the 9/11 attacks but is now pushing that cooperation to new limits.

In the past 10 months, for example, about a half-dozen midlevel financiers and logistics experts working with Al Qaeda have been captured and are being held by intelligence services in four Middle Eastern countries after the United States provided information that led to their arrests by local security services, a former American counterterrorism official said.
Five months ago this news would have made headlines for a week.
But, that was before Hopenchange arrived.
Today its just another news item.

Freddie is such a prolific poster -- grasping at straws, in the hope that something, maybe something, just might reflect badly on President Obama.

Perfection seems like a high standard to which to hole this president, especially when the last president was not only extremely unpopular by the time he left office, but was one of the most incompetent ever (think Harding, Cooledge).

Once again, I raise the suggetion that Freddie is merely a new pseudonym of a previously prolific poster on this site.

Antidope,

It's called intervention!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Obama's policies are falling faster in the polls than Keith Olbermans TV ratings. Bush had a higher approval rating than your Dear Leader at 100 days.

All you have is his poll ratings for being charming! Whoopy............... Even the left is dissing your boy for his acceptance of the Bush Cheney doctrine!

incompetent ever (think Harding, Cooledge).

Jimmy Carter..............

Cheney Urges Obama to Name Bitter Psycho to Bench

http://tinyurl.com/r3yrjn

RNC fumbles Sotomayor talking points

Whoops. The Republican National Committee (RNC) has apparently inadvertently released its list of talking points on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

Included on the released list were a few hundred influential Republicans who were the intended recipients of the talking points. Unfortunately for the RNC, so were members of the media.

http://tinyurl.com/pooz9x

******

Fumble - red team - ten yard penalty - first and ten blue team.

lol

Whoop's I'm obviously not a sports fan - no penalty for a fumble just first and ten (or so I'm told)

lol

Freddie -

Name calling again?

And refering to an African-American president as "boy" is more than a little racist. Or perhaps you aren't aware of that part of American history?

Hey antidote,

Nice try!

Obama is only half african american and was raised in an all white neighborhood by white grandparents.
At the ripe ol age of 47, I do consider him a boy.......

Boy Wonder that is!

Liberals are soooo thin skinned.......

Defiant North Korea fires rockets, blames U.S.

Tue May 26, 2009 5:57pm EDT

N. Korea tests Obama's open hand

By Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea defied international condemnation of its latest nuclear test by firing two short-range missiles off its east coast on Tuesday and major powers considered tougher action against the isolated communist state.

With tension in the region high, South Korea said it would join a U.S.-led initiative to intercept ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction, something Pyongyang has warned it would consider a declaration of war.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Where's the diplomacy Obama promised?

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll (lowest positive rating yet)

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 31% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty percent (30%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +1.

That’s the lowest positive rating yet received by the new President.

It will take several more days to determine whether today’s low ratings are merely statistical noise or a reflection of shifting perceptions.

Following the President’s speech on the Guantanamo prison camp, just 38% agree with the President’s decision. Forty-nine percent (49%) now disagree. Opinion was evenly divided in January. By a two-to-one margin, voters oppose having any of the suspected terrorists brought to prisons in the United States. Only 25% share the President’s belief that the Guantanamo camp weakened the nation’s security.

Well, the razzies are rightwingers. For a non-partisan survey, check out the trend in party identification at Pew. From 1939 to Thursday of last week. At 22%, the only time repugs were lower was in 1979! haha

http://people-press.org/party-identification-trend/

The angry screeching from the right that Judge Sotomayor is too emotional to fairly apply the law is already starting to sound, well, hysterical. And the fun is only just beginning.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/199484/page/2

Oh and... the movement is DOWN on that trend graph.

I found out about it from this article, where even Texas Sen. Cornyn admits that repugs are in the basement.

Texas, Florida offer GOP models for the future

Pew Center survey: Just 1 in 5 call selves Republicans

By RICHARD S. DUNHAM HOUSTON CHRONICLE

WASHINGTON — Texas Sen. John Cornyn is an upbeat kind of fellow, but when it comes to the Republican Party’s current political standing, he is distinctly downbeat.

“I think that we’re at a low ebb,” the San Antonio Republican declares.

After eight years of the Bush presidency and the worst economic slump since the Great Depression, only 22 percent of Americans call themselves Republicans, according to a survey released Thursday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

read the rest here:
http://tinyurl.com/rc56uk

I find that Freddie proves clearly there is nothing of value to be learned or gained from America's right wing. Thank you Freddie. Keep up the good work.

Kalpal,

If that were true then you wouldn't be writing every post about me!

The Boy Wonder is being threatened of war by
N Korea, what's he to do?

Maybe he can send them a signed autographed copy of "Audacity of Hope"- that should be worth some diplomatic browny points!

Sotomayor's Confirmation Hearings Will Be a Trial of the GOP

[...]

Whatever they say in the hearings, Republicans will be at a great disadvantage when it comes time to counting votes in a Democrat-controlled Senate that will be at, or very close to, the filibuster-proof 60-vote majority needed to confirm Sotomayor.

So it will be the GOP and not Sotomayor that will be on trial in this high-stakes judicial confirmation of the post-Bush era of Republican dominance. Latinos will watch to see if GOP leaders will use the Sotomayor hearings to distance themselves from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and others many Latinos consider to be anti-immigrant extremists.

And we should all be watching to see if Republicans are prepared to use the Sotomayor confirmation as a way to communicate a willingness to redeem themselves for the great injustices of our recent past.

http://tinyurl.com/qzjowd

In even greater peril is the future of the Republican Party. In opposing such a supremely qualified and relatively moderate nominee as Sonia Sotomayor, the GOP has a real opportunity to cut its current 22% identification level among the electorate down to somewhere in the single digits. Move over Ralph Nader, here come the Cheney=Gingrich-Rove Republicans ready to displace you as leader of America's third party.

Within minutes of Sotomayor getting tapped, a chorus of Republicans fired the first partisan shots in what will be her prolonged confimation process. She's too empathetic. She's an affirmative action hire. She hates white firemen. She hates men. She's a "reverse racist" (per straightforward racist Rush Limbaugh). She's not that smart (this last canard launched against the top Yale student in her class by none other than Karl Rove -- the man who brought us the genius Harriet Miers).

http://marccooper.com/

Sotomayor Majority Opinions Reversed 60% by Supreme Court

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 9:06 AM

By: Stephen Dinan, The Washington Times Article

With Judge Sonia Sotomayor already facing questions over her 60 percent reversal rate, the Supreme Court could dump another problem into her lap next month if, as many legal analysts predict, the court overturns one of her rulings upholding a race-based employment decision.

Three of the five majority opinions Judge Sotomayor wrote for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court reviewed were reversed, providing a potent line of attack opponents raised Tuesday after President Obama announced he will nominate the 54-year-old Hispanic woman to the high court.

"Her high reversal rate alone should be enough for us to pause and take a good look at her record. Frankly, it is the Senates duty to do so," said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not a very good track record, even for a liberal!

Still, never underestimate the Republicans' capacity for taking big political risks that turn out badly. Remember Sarah Palin? Republicans may figure that they're so badly decimated already, so marginalized and irrelevant, there's little to lose and possibly much to gain by going negative on Sotomayor and unleashing their terror-TV and rant-radio attack dogs. It's also possible that without much remaining of any moderate view inside their own ranks, Republicans may simply lack the wisdom -- dare I call it judiciousness? -- to opt for a more sensible strategy.

http://tinyurl.com/qarxhk

Flashback: George H.W. Bush On Clarence Thomas' 'Great Empathy'

http://tinyurl.com/rdj88p

Sotomayor will be confirmed - 70/30

The GOP would be insane not to support her.

GOP enters 7 stages of grief over Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court justice nomination

[...]

Other than procedural griping, there was no strong criticism from GOP senators. "We must determine if Ms. Sotomayor understands that the proper role of a judge is to act as a neutral umpire of the law, calling balls and strikes fairly without regard to one's own personal preferences or political views," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee.

The blowback in the Senate was more over the timing of confirmation hearings.
Republicans want at least 70 days to vet Sotomayor - which would push the hearings into the fall. Obama wants confirmation hearings to begin before lawmakers take their August recess.

"I doubt seriously if you could have the hearings before September, but we'll see," Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) told MSNBC.

http://tinyurl.com/r7dnka

*****

Sure the GOP will try to drag their feet but it was a wise pick. It wil be confirmed.

Obama should have sent up a real hardcore lefty liberal. The GOP would say and do the same things.

Barack is still too centrist for me.

A little local take on Sotomayor from KRQE:

Who is Sotomayor?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVe_ADJqfDo

Words of wisdom from one of your own................

Liberal Jonathan Turley: Sotomayor Lacks Intellectual Depth

By P.J. Gladnick | May 27, 2009 - 10:02

Until yesterday, liberal law professor Jonathan Turley was generally hailed by the leftwing blogosphere for speaking "truth to power." However, now that same group is attacking Turley for speaking truth to MSNBC. Chris Matthews probably thought Turley would support Sonia Sotomayor's nomination right after it was announced. If so, he was in for a big surprise as you can see in this video clip. The same video also shows Turley making the same critique with David Shuster...and taking a swipe at justice Thurgood Marshall as well. First Turley blindsides Matthews with his completely unexpected criticism of Sotomayor:

Smack Down!!

JONATHAN TURLEY: Well, I think that is a fairly standard line. You really have to do that. You're not going to have a nominee stand up and say "The first thing I do is get rid of the Founding Fathers." But I do think that there is a problem here when we talk about temperament and empathy. You know, we are not selecting a house pet. We're selecting a Supreme Court justice and as an academic I have a certain bias. And that is does she have the intellectual throw weight to make a difference on the court? And I have to tell you the optics are better than the opinions in this case. I've read a couple of dozen of her opinions. They don't speak well to her being a nominee on the Supreme Court. She will be historic in many ways like Thurgood Marshall but I 'll remind you Thurgood Marshall was not a lasting intellectual force on the court. He was historic because he was first. And I think that a lot of academics are a little bit disappointed. I am in the sense that Diane Wood, Harold Coe, were not the ultimate people to prevail. These are people that are blazingly brilliant. They would have brought to the court intellects that would frame in the conceptual way.

We have a bigger tent than the Republicans and can tolerate a wider range of viewpoints on what makes a good judge. The Supreme Court is about more than intellect (good and bad). Scalia has shown us that -- great intellect; narrow-minded and arrogant person who fundamentally misunderstands much of what our country is really about.

"Justice" - Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP3s80-z1VA

Clinton urges Israel settlement halt, no exception

[...]

"The president was very clear when Prime Minister Netanyahu was here. He wants to see a stop to settlements -- not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions," Clinton said at a news conference with Egypt's foreign minister.

"We think it is in the best interests of the effort that we are engaged in that settlement expansion cease. That is our position, that is what we have communicated very clearly not only to the Israelis but to the Palestinians and others and we intend to press that point."

http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed1/idUSN27262822

*****

Totally off topic but some good news if we can stick to our position.

It's going to be okay, I can promise you. We don't have to bite the right-wing ankles like rabid dwarves, we can finally empower ourselves in a sustainable, empathetic way.

http://www.morethanfourhours.com/bds