Month: May 2009

The Strangest Argument Against Sotomayor II

Ok, Mankiw has lost his title. This takes the cake:

Sotomayor also claimed: “For me, a very special part of my being Latina is the mucho platos de arroz, gandoles y pernir — rice, beans and pork — that I have eaten at countless family holidays and special events.” This has prompted some Republicans to muse privately about whether Sotomayor is suggesting that distinctive Puerto Rican cuisine such as patitas de cerdo con garbanzo — pigs’ tongue and ears — would somehow, in some small way influence her verdicts from the bench.

This is not, apparently, a joke.

The Roe Angle

Sargent thinks Sotomayor will be questioned on abortion, from the left:

While many have assumed she’s reliable on Roe, there’s precedent for surprising turns from Supreme Court justices, such as David Souter’s 1990s vote to uphold abortion rights. Indeed, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs conceded yesterday that Obama had not directly asked her in their interviews whether she supports the Roe ruling. No one expects Dem Senators to not support Sotomayor. But if she does give an unsatisfactory answer to the Roe question, it could suddenly become a lot more dicey to do so. This one’s worth watching.

Quote Of The Day

“One of them said, 'Obama keep your promise.’ I thought that’s fair. I don’t know which promise he was talking about,” – Barack Obama mocking gay protesters at a celebrity-packed fundraiser in LA. Yes, we all know Obama opposes marriage equality. But milking that opposition for laughs a day after the court ruling upholding Prop 8?

But since he asked, how about an end to the HIV ban, an end to the military ban and a federal recognition of full civil equality for gay married couples? Three clear promises. After this quip, by the way, the NYT reports:

The people in the audience – who paid $30,400 per couple to attend – laughed as they ate a dinner of roasted tenderloin, grilled organic chicken and sun choke rosemary mashed potatoes.

And then I remember why I'm not a Democrat.

Sotomayor In Context

The quote that has Gingrich and Tancredo declaring the new SCOTUS nominee as a racist deserves to be read in full context. I should say I take the position that Sotomayor attaches to Judge Cedarbaum, but I don't think the view that identity matters in jurisprudence is inherently racist. I tend to think that what animates her and Obama is a Justice who might at one point in his or her life felt powerless in the face of the judicial system or the police or government or a big corporation. The memory of that marginalization can help a judge temper his or her view of the law with an understanding that, in the end, real human beings are involved. Justice without mercy can be cruel.

There's a legitimate debate here – and we should have it. But we should have it in context and with nuance (ha!) if we possibly can:

“Judge Cedarbaum… believes that judges must transcend their personal sympathies and prejudices and aspire to achieve a greater degree of fairness and integrity based on the reason of law. Although I agree with and attempt to work toward Judge Cedarbaum's aspiration, I wonder whether achieving that goal is possible in all or even in most cases. And I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society.

Whatever the reasons… we may have different perspectives, either as some theorists suggest because of our cultural experiences or as others postulate because we have basic differences in logic and reasoning….

Our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions. The aspiration to impartiality is just that—it's an aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others….

Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my colleague Judge Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.

Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases…. I am… not so sure that I agree with the statement. First… there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.”

Deal With The Debt! Ctd.

As the markets fret over inflation, Noah Millman has a penetrating post on what may lie ahead after the anti-deflationary splurge:

If the United States faces a situation at some point in the near future where we cannot finance our debts from abroad in our own currency, we would be forced into the kinds of austerity measures that created deep depressions in multiple emerging markets in the 1990s. To the extent that our current actions are retrospectively blamed for contributing to that crisis, we’ll regret them even more than we regret allowing the housing bubble to develop in the first place.

Meanwhile, Felix Salmon and Matt Yglesias correct John Taylor. Taylor's broad case against our run-up in debt is sounder than his math.

Do The Photos Show Rape?

The Telegraph reports on the pictures Obama is trying to keep from the public eye:

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee. Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Larisa Alexandrovna recalls that pictures of this sort have already been released and re-posts them.