Humor, Political Commentary

Sotomayor Clarifies

1 Comment

In a guest editorial over at Burge’s place:

As a Justicia on the Tribunal Supremo I will be naturally vigilant for any colleague who strays from the law, and will not hesitate to clobber them with the rodillo of established legal precedence. Afterwards, when we have reached consensus, there will be hot makeup majority opinions.

This is exactly the kind of wise, precedent-faithful Latina legal approach that I believe will be welcome by others on the Supreme Court bench, all of whom bring their own unique genetic legal wisdom and instinctual empathy. Justices Roberts and Souter for example, with their aloof, sexless, constipated, emotionally-stunted WASPy intellects and natural affinity for preppy white collar criminals. Justice Stevens has this as well, along with a keen grasp for the legal issues facing Americans with senile dementia. As an Irishman, Justice Kennedy enjoys a natural “gift of the gab” and poetically tragic alcoholism. Like you, I imagine that Justice Breyer can be kind of pushy and whiny, but we should also remember that as a Jew he is probably very skilled at cases that involve complicated numbers and math. To the casual observer, it probably seems absurd to have greasy Italian “goodfellas” like Justices Alito and Scalia working inside the legal system, but if we give them a chance they may eventually break the code of Omerta and finally turn state’s evidence against their Cosa Nostra bosses. Yes, many have criticized Justice Thomas for being a self-hating “Oreo” and “Uncle Tom,” but I like to think that deep inside him still lurks the the DNA of an angry Cadillac-driving streetwise Superfly, ready to show “The Man” that his pimp hand is strong.

As he says, adding a little spice to the menudo of justice.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

Saving The Mullahs

2 Comments

Obama continues to throw them a life line:

…even as the Iranian people are casting doubt on the legitimacy of the regime (and are being brutalized for doing so) and even as the regime continues trying to kill Americans in Iraq and elsewhere, Obama is giving the mullahs the three things they most need: confidence in their security, international legitimacy, and time.

As I’ve been saying for a month, there is nothing complicated about this: Obama wants the mullahs to win. That seems impossible to believe for many well-intentioned people, but once you accept it — and everything it implies — life starts to make much sense. It isn’t any better, mind you, but at least it makes sense.

Sadly, yes. It’s hard to show how persuasive you are in negotiating with your fellow dictators if they get inconveniently thrown out of office.

Business, Technology and Society, Weird

A Strange Product

4 Comments

I’m shopping at American for flights from SFO to LAX, and they have a variety of non-stops for fifty-nine bucks. But what’s bizarre is that they offer one-stops as well (e.g., through Seattle, or Dallas). And they only charge four hundred bucks for them. How many people buy one? You have to really want the miles, and like riding in airplanes. I wonder if it’s just an artifact of their reservations software, that no one has bothered to fix? Or if they’ve ever actually sold one?

Education, Political Commentary

Good News On The Freedom Front

1 Comment

The speech fascists at a college have been enjoined under the First Amendment. And I love the irony of this:

The case stems from the incident in which a professor in a speech class refused to grade a student’s presentation, apparently because of the religious nature of the student’s presentation, the student’s expression of opposition for same-sex marriage in the presentation, or both. (The professor apparently also called the student a “fascist bastard” in front of the class for having supported the anti-same-sex-marriage Prop. 8, and refused to let the student finish the presentation.)

Classic leftist projection.

Political Commentary, Space

We Have New NASA Administration

1 Comment

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that Bolden and Garver are now in charge. I knew that there was a committee vote scheduled for today, but didn’t know that it would make it through the full Senate. Take the story for what it’s worth, but I first heard of it via both NSS and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Looks like a done deal.

[Update a while later]

It happened fast because it was by unanimous consent (i.e., no Senators objected).

Political Commentary

It’s Not Surprising, But…

2 Comments

Apparently Judge Sotomayor lies about baseball, too. What’s amazing about these kinds of casual lies is that they’re so unnecessary. It’s not like anyone’s going to really care whether or not she’s a baseball fan. It’s not a requirement for the highest court. It almost makes you wonder if her lies, like the Clintons’, are almost pathological.

Her nomination process reminds me of Obama’s campaign, in which she pretends to be mainstream, with a wink to her supporters who know that she’s lying, but are happy about it. And as James Copland points out, the fact that she feels that she has to lie about her judicial philosophy in order to be confirmed is a huge political victory for strict constructionism. I also hope that her lies are sufficiently transparent that even if she is confirmed, it is with a bare minimum of votes.

[Update in the evening]

The reviews are in:

What do these bad reviews for Sotomayor mean? It doesn’t mean she won’t get confirmed. The White House has no intention of closing this show now and admitting defeat, and the Senate Democrats won’t let Sotomayor fail in order to protect their new President. However, her performance adds fuel to the Republican argument that Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor not because she was the best possible candidate and not because she was a moderate, but strictly for political purposes. None of this will affect her tenure on the Supreme Court, but it will provide further evidence that Obama has a big problem in selecting people for his administration, and that there seems to be little effort at vetting nominees for important positions.

In short, every prevarication and stumble Sotomayor makes deepens the impression that Obama is not a competent executive.

And we can expect it to continue, and for him to continue to keep digging because…well…he’s not.

I would note, though, that I hope (and there’s some reason, at least for now, to hope) that Charles Bolden will be an exception. And NASA administrator is traditionally one of the toughest jobs to fill.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!