Month: July 2009

Breaking: Sotomayor Vote Delayed by Republicans

Trish

Ken Rudin is reporting that Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee canceled today’s vote on Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Today’s scheduled vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the U.S. Supreme Court has been postponed until next Tuesday.

Republican senators on the committee, as is their prerogative, asked for a one-week delay. Ranking Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama officially requested the delay, and chairman Pat Leahy accepted it.

The committee will reconvene next Tuesday, July 28.

Sessions and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have taken heat for their relentless beating on the dead horse of Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” comment. Is this their petulant revenge?

Update: C-Span confirms

It’s Getting Scary Out There: ODS on the Rise

Trish

Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) watched his recent town hall meeting be hijacked by a sufferer of Obama Derangement Syndrome (ODS). For background on “Birthers,” of which this overwrought woman is obviously one, read John Avlon’s piece at The Daily Beast. The Sarah Palin mobs are starting to look quaint compared to these folks. Some of the comments left so far on YouTube include:

  • AirborneIdentity, i agree with you, who gives a fuck, he’s? also got the Marks of the Beast of the bble drawn in Il Lottery; who gieves a fuck
    the Antichrist can rule the White House, America and the world, “Who gives a fuck ?”
    fucken bastard
  • Not surprisingly, you want the Constitution of TheUnited States to be used as toilet paper juat like Barry Sotero AKA B.? Hussein Obama is doing. Know you’ll be fought every step of the way. Too many good men and women have died to keep it.
  • noldaker, obama is the beast, and antichrist,? the unholy trinity of the two beasts, and satan
    u have to look at the first thing: he’s got the marks of the beast
    check out the featured video of those marks
  • YOU GO GIRL!
    I am a democrat? and I WANT PROOF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!
    I will never ever trust the undemocratic party after this..
    SHOW US THAT BIRTH CERTIFICATE!
    my bet is that they will have forged one ready for 2012..
    I am disgusted at this government! an ineligible man in office! They are lying through their teeth to the american people!

Are you worried yet?

h/t to Politico

Judging Sonia: Republicans Reveal Themselves

Trish

“It’s the American way that we judge people as individuals, not as groups. And by that standard we can say unequivocally that this particular wise Latina, with the richness of her experiences, would far more often than not reach a better conclusion than the individual white males she faced in that Senate hearing room. Even those viewers who watched the Sotomayor show for only a few minutes could see that her America is our future and theirs is the rapidly receding past.”

— Columnist Frank Rich, commenting on the Supreme Court confirmation hearings, and the hypocrisy and isolation of the Republican senators who questioned her.

Hey Mark Sanford, God Will But We Won’t

Trish

Sanford reacts to his “tragedy”

The people of South Carolina have to be asking themselves how to get rid of Mark Sanford. The holy roller turned philanderer is punting it back to God in a new self-serving “apology.”

Sanford: ‘I think this could be a far more productive last session than the one that would have been had the tragedy that has unfolded not occurred.’ Really?

I have struggled with how best to convey my regret in letting so many down, and in that regard I realize this column does not do justice to the process of saying “I am sorry.” A hand-written note or phone call would ultimately be more appropriate, but given the number of people I need to apologize to, I write this to begin the journey of trying to get things more right with you and others.

It is true that I did wrong and failed at the largest of levels, but equally true is the fact that God can make good of our respective wrongs in life.

Way to take responsibility, governor. “I did wrong BUT blah, blah God” shows how much you still don’t get it. But just in case there was any doubt, you didn’t stop there.

I’ve realized…my approach needs to be less about my will and more about looking for ways to more humbly present the greater principals and ideas at play…It means less time fighting the tide, and a greater awareness of the fact that God controls it. In working with a few alterations to my approach, I think this could be a far more productive last session than the one that would have been had the tragedy that has unfolded not occurred, and in turn, people’s lives can be made better.

So you see kids, it’s all about God. How much responsibility can we expect Mark to take when God is in control? But this one part spells it out.

[…]

Republicans Can’t Proofread

Buck Banks

At least the ones in Florida apparently are incapable of distributing a press release without grammatical or spelling mistakes, or in this case, missing copy. I have not altered this text. I copied it directly from the Republican Party of Florida’s press release. If it weren’t for the headline, that first sentence, although factually accurate, would make even less sense:

Carrie Prejean to Speak at DTD Exchange ‘09

Tallahassee-–The Republican Party of Florida today announced Carrie Prejean is a model and former beauty queen from Vista, California. She held the title of Miss California USA 2009, and placed first runner up in the Miss USA 2009 pageant. Prejean gained nationwide attention over her answer to a question about same-sex marriage during the Miss USA 2009 pageant.

Drive the Discussion Exchange ’09 will be a gathering for young people from across the State of Florida to discuss the future of the Republican Party. The event is open to all ages, but will focus on young voters, 18 – 35 years of age. The Exchange will include a keynote address by Bruce Jenner, special guest speaker Jonathan Krohn, panel discussions on “the benefits of social networking” and “What does the Republican Party mean to me,” as well as a trade show. Additional speakers will include technology professionals, elected officials, and professional athletes between the ages of 25-40.

The RPOF is really onto something here, with ancient athlete Bruce Jenner and homophobe Prejean, because they are likely to apeal to the 15 to 35-year-old demographic of potential Republicans.

Wonder if there’s a swimsuit competition.

Sex on C Street: GOP Rep Slept With Mistress in Christianist Enclave

Jon Ponder

The latest bombshell about the congressional Christianists’ residence and meeting house on Washington’s C Street comes in the form of a lawsuit in which the soon-to-be ex-wife of former Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) is suing his alleged longtime mistress, Elizabeth Creekmore Byrd, for alienation of affection.

Rep. Pickering bunked at the C Street house when he served in Congress and Leisha Pickering alleges that Chip and Elizabeth were intimate in the C Street house — which, by the way, is listed in tax records as a church.

If you are keeping score, Pickering the third philandering Christian extremist politician connected with the C Street house to be outed as an adulterer in the last few weeks. The others are Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.). Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who is also a C Street resident, has also been mentioned in the scandals. It was allegedly he who counseled Ensign to arrange payments to the family of Ensign’s former mistress.

The house was profiled in the Washington Post on June 26:

[…]

A Disgrace of National Proportions

Trish

“What most Americans don’t know is the extensive complicity of the North in slavery. The victors write the history books, so the North wrote the history on slavery and very conveniently painted it solely as a Southern sin, whereas in fact the Northern colonies and states owned slaves for over 200 years and were the main slave traders…I’m a firm believer in the U.S. government apologizing because of all the ways in which the government supported and condoned and made slavery possible.”

— Katrina Brown, whose family was the subject of the PBS documentary, “Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North.” Brown’s ancestors, the DeWolfs, worked out of Bristol, Rhode Island in the late 1700s and early 1800s, trading rum for more than 10,000 men, women, and children from West Africa whom they brought to the United States to be sold as slaves. The DeWolfs grew to be one of the wealthiest families in the nation through the slave-trading business.