Sonia: You Got It Goin’ Girl
Posted by Michelle Moquin on July 15th, 2009
Good morning.
I got off of work yesterday afternoon and I spent over two hours glued to the radio myself listening to the Sotomayor hearings while I sat in my car in the parking lot of Whole Foods and then in front of my house. I did not want to miss a minute of the time I could devote in between my errands. I was so impressed with Sotomayor. She was so calm and cool, answering with such grounded-ness (word?) and humble confidence while being, yes ‘grilled’. As expected, it was a show of hypocrisy at its best.
Unfortunately for the ones doing the grilling, the grill had no meat. The grillers claim that her speeches were filled with racist remarks, when her words were meant to inspire, was just pure hypocrisy. If you can’t understand the passion of her inspiration, the depth of her statements, or as in the case with these grillers, if your racist mind refuses to, you never will.
Just look at her long history; the cases that she has tried, speak much louder than her words that are being twisted, taken out of context, and misused. Yes, she is an empathetic woman (Yeah a human with humanity!), but it is obvious from her cases, that she is not making decisions on the bench based on her empathy, nor based on her heart. It is clear her pledge of ‘fidelity to the law’ is her driving commitment.
Hmm…’fidelity’ – it is a word that has come up a lot lately in politics. Is it just pure coincidence that in this group, those who claim ‘fidelity’ in their own lives, are also the ones calling her a racist? Like I said, ‘hypocrisy at its best’.
I am proud of Sotomayor. She is a wonderful role model and I look forward to another woman representing our judicial system.
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Peter: I suggest you keep trying. There is not much else you can do.
Hey Zen Lill: Yes…’the learning’…you and me both. The learning has been good and challenging. There is a part of me that sometimes wants to put my head in the sand and relive the saying ‘ignorance is blissful’…but just for a moment :) Thanks for the congrats – you too Al.
Sally: You have brought up a good point.
Ida and Cathy: Thanks for reading here, Ida, and welcome Cathy. I love that you are now sharing this venue together. – very cool. I am sure now that Cathy is allowed to read, your conversations will be taken to a whole new level. There are many interesting topics and people who comment here. Thank you for posting that very interesting story. And my answer is ‘No.’ As much as I am proud to have Obama as our president, I so look forward to a day when a woman is president. And Cathy, I look forward to seeing some comments from you now that you are of appropriate age :)
Lois: Thanks for bringing up the ‘fun’ part. I know this venue can get real serious, and it needs to. But a girl needs to have fun too. Sounds like you have a sweet hubby :)
Here’s to the beginning of another successful year at “A day in the life of…”
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor
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July 15th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Now we will see white men parade their “disadvantaged” white men. White firemen who got special treatment from 5 of the Supreme Court Justices. They had to make new law to give their white brethren a ruling that benefited them.
If an OTW panel of judges did that, the whites in this country would go crazy. Have you noticed, as was pointed out, that NONE of the white pundits in the news media are bringing up the fact that the 5 justices had to change the law to rule in favor of their white brethren.
The misleading answer that is being proposed is that the 5 ruled that the simple fact that a lawsuit would be raised by the OTWs is not a reason to give a new test.
That is not what the 5 justices changed the law to be. They changed it to force municipalities to have to divine whether the lawsuit that would be brought by the OTWs would prevail. How can anyone know whether a lawsuit will prevail, that’s why there is a trial.
That significantly changes the law as to allow municipalities to go back to discriminating against OTWs and women without fear of legal challenge.
July 15th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Jeff Sessions being constantly brought before the rest of america to comment on an OTW when he is a known bigot and racist says a lot about the difference white men give to themselves and their hypocrisy.
Wolf on CNN asks the bigot if he is still undecided as if to imply the racist would vote any other way but no.
White males are the only group who can look into the camera lens and proclaim, “Why do we need to decide whether a judge should be white, OTW, male or female, why not just appoint the best qualified without feeling the total hypocrisy of that statement coming from them.
The thought never comes to mind why wasn’t that the standard when white males rigged the laws to make it legal for only white males to have all those positions. Only now that OTWs and white women have the political power to unrig those laws do white men now want to make the system purely the best qualified.
The correct answer is that yes we as a country will move towards that pure system as soon as we level the playing field by diluting the numbers of white men placed there illegally and amorally by bigoted, racist white men for the benefit of white men.
And yes, we as americans must continue to address this issue no matter how uncomfortable it makes a white male feel. It is so disingenuous for white america to pretend that if america just starts today without any quotas that everything will be alright.
That’s very white of them since they have benefited from a system that set up 100% quotas for whites only for about 200 years. That kind of Affirmative Action requires another kind of Affirmative Action to begin to put their illegal taking of equal opportunities from OTWs and females.
Whites who this process and discussion makes uncomfortable should consider how uncomfortable it was and is to be people who were and are the victims of their illegal and amoral acts to keep them from equality.
If I had my preference, I would opt for the mental uncomfortableness whites may be feeling today than the physical reality of being denied jobs, education, food, and equal treatment because of the color of my skin. Perhaps white america is unaware that that also comes with a bit of mental uncomfortableness too.
Lets do what it takes to level the playing field and then we can go about the business of no quotas. But first we need to do whatever it takes to put more OTWs and women in all the places that were rigged by white males to give themselves.
Al, I feel that I know you to be a fellow human being. I don’t think color or gender plays any significant role in how you respond on the issues or comment for fun. It is Michelle who says go for it. If she can take it, I can.
Robert
July 15th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Q: I had all the standard vaccinations when I was a child. Are there any I should have again? What should I be vaccinated for as an adult?
A: You should get the Tdap vaccination every 10 years. It protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough). This is especially important now because of recent outbreaks of whooping cough among adolescents and young adults.
If you are not in a monogamous long-term relationship, get the Hepatitis B vaccine to protect against this sexually transmitted liver disease.
Also, the new shingles vaccine has been approved by the FDA. Shingles is caused by the chickenpox virus. The vaccine is recommended for everyone age 60 and older — except those with weakened immune systems.
The pneumococcal vaccine prevents pneumococcal pneumonia. Everyone age 65 and older, as well as younger people with heart or lung disease or compromised immune systems, should get this vaccination.
An annual flu shot is recommended for people over age 50 and younger adults with diabetes, asthma, kidney disease, heart or lung disease, or a weakened immune system.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Congrats Robert. i found this on the web.
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July 12, 2009
LKL Web Exclusive – It’s High Time – By Anita F. Hill
Posted: 06:38 PM ET
It’s High Time
By Anita F. Hill
So much has been made of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court that it’s hard to know what people expect from the upcoming hearing. For her part, I expect to see an infinitely qualified and highly prepared nominee anxious to address the Senate Judiciary Committee. Despite her years of practice and judicial experience, Sotomayor’s Republican detractors on the committee will, I suspect, try to show that she is unfit to sit on the court. A recent study showing that 98 percent of the time she agrees with the majority on constitutional questions will deflate claims that Judge Sotomayor’s judicial positions are outside mainstream legal reasoning. Republican senators will be hard pressed to argue that a Justice Sotomayor would put the law on an unprecedented course given support from the Fraternal Order of Police, Louis Freeh and Ken Starr, not to mention the American Bar Association’s highest rating.
In a wider context, Republican Senators ought to be reminded that President Reagan started the Supreme Court on the course of better gender representation in 1981 with his first nominee, Sandra Day O’Connor. We are now in our fourth year with only one woman on the country’s highest court and Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation which would double the number of women on the court isn’t parity, but it’s a start.
For me the critical question is not whether the Supreme Court should have seats set aside for women; the one so often asked. Nearly 30 years after Justice O’Connor’s appointment, the question we confront as a country is whether we can let go of the presumption that these lofty positions belong to men. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put it, “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made…It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.” Justice O’Connor agrees with Justice Ginsburg that another woman is needed on the court. And Justice O’Connor has told none other than David Letterman that she is “very happy we’re getting another woman on the court.” Justice Ginsburg, who knows Judge Sotomayor, went further, saying that Judge Sotomayor “will bring to the Supreme Court …a wealth of experience in law and life.”
Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s professional achievements, fueled by her own intellect and initiative, position her to advance our thinking about women’s fitness to judge. What makes Judge Sotomayor even more uniquely suited for this nomination is that the law helped facilitate many of her accomplishments. At the beginning of the 1970s, for the most part, law was a profession taught by white men to white men. Women made up roughly seven percent of entering classes. Few professors were women and the overwhelming majority of law teachers were white. Justice Ginsburg recently told the New York Times that she was tenured at Columbia University because the school was trying to fulfill President Nixon’s Department of Health, Education and Welfare civil rights demands.
In 1972, Title IX issued a simple and sweeping mandate — no one could be excluded from participation in any education program or activity on the basis of sex. Legislation that would ultimately transform high school and college athletics served as the impetus for law school admission that was truly open to all qualified applicants. What happened was remarkable. From 1970 to 1979, the number of women receiving law degrees increased more than tenfold, from 801 to 10,026. By the end of the decade, when Sonia Sotomayor graduated from Yale Law School, women, a growing number of them women of color, made up 28 percent of all law graduates.
Notwithstanding high grades and impressive degrees, many still had trouble landing the most coveted jobs with influential judges or prestigious law firms. Judge Sotomayor herself filed a grievance claiming that, in spite of her sterling undergraduate and law school credentials, a firm refused to consider her for employment because she was a Latina. By completely ignoring the growing pool of female job applicants, employers risked violating the protections that civil rights law provided against employment discrimination. No, obstacles to professional advancement did not all magically disappear, but doors that were tightly closed a decade before cracked open, and women entered them in record numbers.
As an experienced lawyer and jurist, Judge Sotomayor is representative of a generation of hardworking and talented women lawyers who draw on their life experiences to improve the law, and not, as some have suggested, replace one form of bias with another. Sonia Sotomayor understands that different perspectives that result from lived experiences. She also knows that, when interpreting the law, judges should assess “when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.” This kind of honest introspection and a true appreciation for the law are laudable judicial traits.
No longer does the argument that there are not enough qualified women to achieve some semblance of gender parity in the judiciary carry any weight. Since Judge Sotomayor’s graduation, the number of women entering law school grew. In the past decade women have received nearly half of all law degrees awarded. Yet, women make up only 25 percent of the federal district court judiciary. If ever there was a time for the Senate Judiciary Committee to proceed with a nomination with dignity and fairness, that time is now. Like no other, this historic hearing could determine the role of women and the court for years to come.
Anita F. Hill, graduated from Yale Law School in 1980 and is currently a professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Her commentary is a Larry King Live web exclusive and her thoughts are her own.
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Thais
July 15th, 2009 at 10:12 am
The family, husband and wife with the 16 kids that was killed in Florida were murdered for more than the money in their safe.
There are people who wanted it to look like a simple robbery. It is much more. More people will be apprehended. If they don’t get the main players, watch this place.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:35 am
For Those of you on the mainland that want to see Guam’s winner for the right to vie for America’s Next Top Model go to this link.
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Tiara Lizama Wins Guam Casting Call For America’s Next Top Model
Guam News Factor – Guam,USA
By Jeff Marchesseault GUAM – Contestant #14 Tiara Lizama is the winner of The CW-4 Guam’s Official Casting Call for America’s Next Top Model. …
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Hafa adai
Anna
July 15th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Viv,
Hello and how have you been?
Of course you mean our sun when you speak of our galaxies youngest star. I have also known that deep space is extremely bright. Would this fact have anything to do with the speed one is traveling, or is it just bright, regardless of what speed the observer is traveling?
I would also like to know if the TAO use wormholes, or bend space in a way in which brings your destination closer to your departure point. I am “very amazed” at the speed that you are capable of traveling. Perhaps you could try and explain (in laymans terms) a little something to me.
Al
July 15th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Robert,
I’m not sure I know what you are talking about (end of comment#2). Take what?
But I do think you are doing a great job in getting people to recognize racism and bigotry.
Michelle,
How you doing today? Happy Blog Birthday She’s your baby, you nurtured her and now she is two years old. Gotta go Soto mayor is being hammered, who is that creep. Oh Specter
Al
AL
July 15th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
I must say Sotomayor is truly showing grace under pressure. It’s maddening just listening but I guess all justices go through a version of this ridiculousness…I keep yelling at the radio…must stop before someone has me committed : ) Ok, I’m off to MN on Bidness for the weekend, will pop in when I can, if I can, caio, Zen Lill