What Sotomayor has that Palin doesn’t … so far
I want to pick up a thread in one of the posts below, in which a commenter noted that among many on the left, “Palin isn’t a serious candidate because many feel she’s intellectually challenged, but those same critics support a Supreme Court Nominee who had to read children’s books in college.”
The reference was to Sonia Sotomayor, the appeals court judge of Puerto Rican heritage nominated by President Obama to the Supreme Court. While at Princeton, she was apparently advised that her English-language skills were inadequate and that one way to improve those skills was to read books that she had missed being raised in a largely Spanish-speaking household.
Pat Buchanan and others on the right have used that to belittle Sotomayor, noting that “How do you graduate first in your class at Princeton if your summer reading consists of “Chicken Little” and “The Troll Under the Bridge”? As other commenters noted, that’s not exactly accurate. Sotomayor recalled in a 1996 speech that “I spent my summers at Princeton doing things most of my other classmates took for granted. I spent one summer vacation reading children’s classics that I had missed in my prior education — books like Alice in Wonderland, Huckleberry Finn, and Pride and Prejudice. My parents spoke Spanish, they didn’t know about these books.”
I think that tells us something important about Sotomayor, something that even the Pat Buchanan’s of the world should celebrate rather than condemn. She arrived at Princeton, recognized that her background had left a weakness in her preparation and in her ability to compete in the mainstream, and she resolutely set out to fix it.
If she were the Latina separatist that her opponents hope to paint her as, she would have rejected the classics as stories written by white people for white people. and she set out to fix it. She did the exact opposite. It is a classic example of the second-generation immigrant experience, striving to earn a place in mainstream America. (What may anger the Buchanans of the world is that she did not feel the need to reject her Puerto Rican upbringing in the process; she merely added the mainstream cultural experience to it.)
I think there’s a lesson there for Palin as well. Sotomayor recognized her shortcomings and worked hard to correct them. She had high goals and she knew she had better prepare herself to achieve them, and she was willing to pay the price.
That was not true of the Sarah Palin we saw in the 2008 presidential campaign. She is clearly an intelligent person, but she tried to hide her pitiful lack of preparation by charming, winking and wooing her way into national office. It didn’t work. A great backstory, an appealing image and values that resonate with a lot of the country are not sufficient credentials for the presidency.
If Palin is doing what Sotomayor did — if she has now recognized that her background as a small-town mayor and governor of an isolated state with fewer citizens than DeKalb County prepared her poorly for the major national and international issues of the day — she can be a real player. But if she doesn’t do the remedial work, if the Palin of 2012 isn’t notably more engaged and educated on the issues of the day than the Palin of 2008, she’ll fail miserably.
You see it all the time in sports — the player of immense natural talent who believes that talent alone will get them there. Life rarely works that way.
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304 comments Add your comment
Paul
June 25th, 2009
11:05 am
USinUK
8-1?!!?
Damn neocon iconoclast literalist strict constructionist conservative justices….
Hey, were they the same neocon iconoclast literalist strict constructionist conservative justices who just the other day voted 8-1 to not overturn the Voting Rights Act like liberals said they were going to?
RealityKing
June 25th, 2009
11:05 am
Take off the rose colored glasses Bosch.., and go back to school, where you too will see the agenda being pushed ahead of truth and reality.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
11:07 am
Paul –
you know what they say about blind pigs and acorns …
Paul
June 25th, 2009
11:08 am
booger 11:01
Darn informative post. Thanks.
I’d read a similar article in the European press a while back about Finland. How they were having a talent pool drain because of the people who wanted to work elsewhere and make some $$$, then go back to Finland.
@@
That cell phone guy might’ve been a Fin.
If it’s not Swedish, I lose track -
booger
June 25th, 2009
11:08 am
Bosch,
I count being a professor as inferior experience to being a community activist. He obviously never had responsibility for a budjet.
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
11:09 am
RealityKing,
Really, can you back up any of the tripe you post with anything? Really?
I’ve been to school enough.
suck my thumb
June 25th, 2009
11:10 am
Jay-In one paragraph you say “while at princeton she was ADVISED that her english skills were inadequate”. And in the next you say”she arrived at princeton recognized that her background had left a weakness in her preparation and in her ability to compete in the mainstream,and she resoluttely set out to fix it”. Which was it?
Paul
June 25th, 2009
11:10 am
USinUK 11:07
You keep talking about ACORN like that and you’re gonna have a whole bunch of bloggers here ganging up on you -
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
11:11 am
Bosch … dude. like he SO told you, man. like, you should just go back to SCHOOL … and see the AGENDA … man …
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
11:11 am
booger @ 11:08 –
Really? A university professor inferior experience as community activist? Really? And budget is spelled with a “g” – just saying.
So a budget is what you need to suceed in politics? Well, damn, I’m running for office! Is there a specific budget you need, or will any old budget do. Does your check book count? Or does it have to be more elaborate?
booger
June 25th, 2009
11:12 am
Paul,
Norway is a beautiful, country, and has the most attractive people in the world. It is however, stifling for anyone who is educated and ambitious.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
11:12 am
Paul …
hahaha … between Acorn and Soros, there’s just so much to make their wee little heads e’sploded!!
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
11:13 am
USinUK,
Yeah, I consider myself TOLD!!! LOL!!!
GOP for Thee
June 25th, 2009
11:13 am
Well, Paul, you passed my definition of “tedium” milepost way back there. In my original post, I put forth a simple fact regarding a major difference between Republican and Democratic party philosophies and that IS what I am defending. I consider it a given that Democrats are flexible given their willingness to accept that big businesses are not all bad while simultaneously acknowledging that all big businesses are not working in the best interests of this country — to put it rather succinctly. The Democratic Party is not blinded by a strict adherence to a stupid philosophy regarding big business as the Republican party is. Now, do you care to comment on what I posited. If so, try again. Otherwise, you may succeed in giving me a headache yet.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
11:14 am
Bosch – I think the kewl kidz say p0wned … or some such.
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
11:14 am
Paul,
I do not believe I have said hello to you this morning….hello.
Normal
June 25th, 2009
11:15 am
Clarence Thomas gives men a bad name…
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
11:15 am
USinUK,
I wouldn’t know – I’m not cool.
booger
June 25th, 2009
11:20 am
Bosch,
Yeah, I think having experience with any budget would be helpful. One needs to have some idea of the concept that a budget is not just a spending plan, it must also include an intake component.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
11:20 am
Normal –
why stop at men? southerners, justices, southern justices … the list is endless.
suck my thumb
June 25th, 2009
11:21 am
total stereotype-Democrats willing to bend & republicans to stubborn in regards to big business.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
11:21 am
Bosch –
dude. you’re into the futball … you are SO cool!!!
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
11:23 am
booger,
Are you seriously going to sit there and tell us all that Obama doesn’t know the concept of a budget? That’s just absurd, and we are all a little above that.
Paul
June 25th, 2009
11:23 am
GOP for Thee
You’re making progress – first time in how many posts you address Democratic sellouts?
I don’t find it comforting to say they do it without blindly adhering to a philosophy.
They just do it calculatingly, then convince voters they don’t do it at all (mostly by hammering Republicans to divert attention).
And I’m not talking about ‘all bad.’ I’m talking about selling votes for $$$ and wasting, year after year, billions and billions on unnecessary programs that benefit wealthy power blocks.
Another blogger posted a comment by Nader on the difference between the two, had to do with speed in dropping to their knees….
Like I said, one can even say at least Reps are blinded to reality by ideology, while Dems sell out with their eyes wide open. Not much to crow about –
Hey Bosch
Hello to you, too!
DB, Gwinnettian
June 25th, 2009
11:24 am
Yeah, let’s take one Norwegian drug addict, and make him representative for the entire country
I don’t think that was her point, but her point was pretty clueless. I think @@ was trying to gin up fear about them gubmint handout programs. What she leaves out is how much it costs to incarcerate a drug addict who winds up committing petty crimes to feed a habit.
Taking her figures at face value, I’d say the Norwegians come out ahead on that particular deal. Of course it seems distasteful to some to imagine that we should subsidize addiction and failure, but then again, when dealing with some folks a government has little but bad options and you gotta go with the leastest-baddest.
Doggone/GA
June 25th, 2009
11:25 am
“Which was it?”
They aren’t mutually exclsive. If she recognized her language skills were not up to par, then she would have SOUGHT ADVICE on how to improve. Is that really so hard?
TnGelding
June 25th, 2009
11:25 am
Don’t we already have a member on the court that took English as a second language in college?
http://www.powells.com/review/2007_12_13.html?utm_source=overview&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_overview&utm_content=My+Grandfather’s+Son&PID=18?
TnGelding
June 25th, 2009
11:25 am
Don’t we already have a member on the court that took English as a second language in college?
http://www.powells.com/review/2007_12_13.html?utm_source=overview&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_overview&utm_content=My+Grandfather’s+Son&PID=18?
@@
June 25th, 2009
11:28 am
Bosch:
One drug addict????
It’s more than one.
No problem….give ‘em $1,500 a month to kill themselves. Once they’re dead, it’s just more for the remaining Norwegians.
RealityKing
June 25th, 2009
11:29 am
Love to stay and blog but now I have to go cover for all the progressively educated that were laidoff this year. Not to mention reviewing that new list I just recieved today, due to the “future” economic outlook.
Which by the way leads me to correct that other progressively re-defined term. Layoffs are done forward looking, hiring is done when looking back. We can’t hire people without overwhelmingly high productivity, but we sure have been firing where we don’t see future need.
Paul
June 25th, 2009
11:30 am
@@
You may be on to something regarding controlling costs for Medicare and Social Security.
Stop all ‘wellness’ programs and inducements… no more smoking cessation… no more weight control…. short term increase in costs, lotsa long-term savings through… less monthly benefits!
Ray
June 25th, 2009
11:31 am
**What Sotomayor has that Palin doesn’t … so far?**
Gee, I dunno. Maybe a frontal lobe?
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
11:33 am
@@,
Sure, why not. Like DB said earlier, it costs less than that to incarcerate them or put them in rehab – and eventually, they’ll be dead, so we don’t have to worry about them anymore, and yeah, they’ll be more to give to the others. What’s the problem?
suck my thumb
June 25th, 2009
11:34 am
DogBone-No if that is it.Or could it have been she did’nt notice until brought to her attention. Either way one could argue that it should have been addressed before Princeton. It was just a question to by the way.
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
11:35 am
@@,
Excuse me – in my 11:33 – it costs MORE than that to incarcerate them or put them in rehab.
It’s their choice in life.
@@
June 25th, 2009
11:35 am
DB:
Of course it seems distasteful to some to imagine that we should subsidize addiction and failure, but then again, when dealing with some folks a government has little but bad options and you gotta go with the leastest-baddest.
My younger sister was a drug addict on welfare. Didn’t help her…..she died leaving children behind.
Doggone/GA
June 25th, 2009
11:36 am
“Either way one could argue that it should have been addressed before Princeton. It was just a question to by the way”
Why? It certainly didn’t seem to hold her back any, did it? And it was just an answer, BTW.
DB, Gwinnettian
June 25th, 2009
11:39 am
@@, what I didn’t see from an admittedly quick skim of that NYT piece you’d linked was an apples:apples comparison of our own nation’s rate of deaths due to drug use, nor that of what we spend per capita prosecuting and incarcerating drug offenders.
That’s what’s at stake here, methinks.
Obviously, any system can be improved and I’m sure Norway’s looking to improve theirs. I know that Switzerland had an experiment (believe it was only in Zurich) with legalizing heroin for awhile and they weren’t happy with the results. So I’m not saying it’s a panacea.
(However, I do think it’s pretty obvious something like marijuana needs to be decriminalized, at minimum to the extent of the bills Barney Frank introduced last week.)
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
11:39 am
Reality -
“Which by the way leads me to correct that other progressively re-defined term”
Unemployment is a lagging indicator. sorry you seem to have difficulty understanding that concept, but maybe this will help (from the Conference Board):
Leading indicators: supplier deliveries, interest rate spread, equities, money supply, consumer expectations, building permits, manufacturers new orders (non-defense goods – it’s a proxy for business investment), average manufacturing hours, weekly unemployment claims, manufacturers orders for consumer goods
Coincident indicators: personal income minus transfer payments, manufacturing sales, industrial production and employment
Lagging indicators: average unemployment/unemployment rate, commercial/industrial loans outstanding, change in labor cost to output, inflation of service costs, ratio of manufacturing/trade inventories to sales, average prime rate charged by banks, and lastly the ratio of installment credit to income.
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
11:40 am
@@,
Welfare does not cause nor cure nor encourage/discourage drug addiction. Addiction is it’s own problem.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
11:42 am
@@ – I’m so sorry about your sister … my god, I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around how much that must have hurt … (I love my sister madly – can’t imagine my life without her)
GOP for Thee
June 25th, 2009
11:42 am
Paul,
Now it’s your turn.
DB, Gwinnettian
June 25th, 2009
11:43 am
My younger sister was a drug addict on welfare.
Had I realized what a personal issue this is to you I might’ve been a tad less dispassionate in my response @ 11.39. But the principle still stands, and I’d have supported any methods that would have helped your sister find the treatment and self-sufficiency she needed.
My profound condolences, however, for your family’s tragedy. My sibs are intact and I can only imagine what the loss of one of them would mean to me.
Later, all.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
11:44 am
“Welfare does not cause nor cure nor encourage/discourage drug addiction. Addiction is it’s own problem”
seriously. I’ve a few addicts – none of them were on welfare — in fact, all of them were advantaged, white, upper-middle class.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
11:44 am
that should read I’ve KNOWN a few addicts …
DrinkSlinger
June 25th, 2009
11:45 am
Exactly. Palin tried to win by winning over voters, not with preperation and intelligence. And, regardless of that, the Republicans were destined to lose. It didn’t really matter if Jesus was the Republican nominee… Following Bush, even your Savior wouldn’t have won.
GOP for Thee
June 25th, 2009
11:46 am
When President Obama unveiled his regulatory overhaul plan last week, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, dodged a bullet.
Lacking power, the agency has only gently regulated the derivatives markets, which have been blamed for wreaking havoc on the global economy. Rather than abolish the agency, however, Obama proposed strengthening it.
The sellout. Riiiiight.
@@
June 25th, 2009
11:47 am
DBG:
Decriminalizing marijuana would definitely cut down on cost in court and incarceration. My sister started with marijuana. The high didn’t satisfy. Onward and upward she went….all the way to heroine and everything in between.
Bottom line is we’re looking to save resources at the expense of lives and family.
It doesn’t sit well with me. Why don’t we just kill ‘em outright? The end justifies the means.
GOP for Thee
June 25th, 2009
11:50 am
WASHINGTON — Millions of people living in nearly 600 neighborhoods across the country are breathing concentrations of toxic air pollutants that put them at a much greater risk of contracting cancer, according to new data from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The levels of 80 cancer-causing substances released by automobiles, factories and other sources in these areas exceed a 100 in 1 million cancer risk. That means that if 1 million people breathed air with similar concentrations over their lifetime, about 100 additional people would be expected to develop cancer because of their
Good thing the Republicans were right there making sure that people’s health was on that list of priorities…and funding…Riiiiight.
DrinkSlinger
June 25th, 2009
11:52 am
Even if your sister started with marijuana, it wasn’t the gateway into harder drugs. Her want for a bigger high was the thing that led her to other things, right? If you just think about it in a scientific manner, looking at all of the good and bad and cause and effect, legalizing marijuana is the logically right thing to do. A cigarette rep told me once, ten years ago (So the numbers have definitely changed), that if marijuana were legalized, sold and taxed like cigarettes, the national defecit would be eliminated in 4 months. Hmmm
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
11:52 am
@@,
“Bottom line is we’re looking to save resources at the expense of lives and family”
No were not. Not every addict winds up dead.
Addicts are addicts, locking them up or throwing them in rehab will not fix the problem – they’ll either get help or they won’t. It’s their choice, and being on welfare or not has nothing to do with the problem of addiction.
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
June 25th, 2009
11:53 am
What Sotomayor has that Palin doesn’t … so far
200 lbs of extra body fat.
eewwww
ncgreybr
June 25th, 2009
11:56 am
Isn’t it interesting that people who complain that Obama didn’t have credentials and was too inexperienced will happily admit that they would vote for Palin for President?
DrinkSlinger
June 25th, 2009
11:56 am
Bosch,
I disagree. Prison will not help, but rehab can. They do have to want to change for it to happen, but they can find that change in rehab. Addiction is a disease. That’s what most people do not understand. After you are addicted it isn’t quite a matter of “I want to quit so I will.” It, at that point, is a physiacl and psycological dependance that needs treatment. Don’t get me worng, some people quit without help. That is true. But most addicts don’t have that kind of willpower.
Doggone/GA
June 25th, 2009
11:57 am
“No were not. Not every addict winds up dead.”
Maybe you don’t know this: but EVERYONE winds up dead
Doggone/GA
June 25th, 2009
11:57 am
“Isn’t it interesting that people who complain that Obama didn’t have credentials and was too inexperienced will happily admit that they would vote for Palin for President?”
More than “interesting”…try HILARIOUS!
getalife
June 25th, 2009
11:58 am
Drug addiction starts with a choice that can lead to a disease.
Like choosing to be a con and getting the con mental disorder.
Anyhoo, most folks tire of being addicted and sick. They quit or seek treatment.
Something the cons should do too.
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
11:58 am
DrinkSlinger,
You are preaching to the choir. You can’t force a person into rehab, yes. I mean, you can, but it will do no good.
My point earlier is that welfare and addiciton do not go hand in hand.
booger
June 25th, 2009
11:59 am
Bosch, I honestly believe that he is so out of his depth on financial matters, that he doesn’t have any idea of the harm he is doing to our country. It doesn’t help that he has surrounded himself with politicians and lobbyist.
Are you honestly trying to say that he or anyone on his team is qualified to run auto companies, control up to 40% of the financial capital of the country, put together a national health program in 5 months without input from the health care industry.
Obama is a smart, charismatic, charming gentleman. All good qualities for a snake oil salesman.
GOP for Thee
June 25th, 2009
11:59 am
What Sotomayor has that Palin doesn’t … so far
200 lbs of extra body fat.
Typical right wing nut argument. Of course, I’m sure your follower[s] will be more than happy to expound on your brevity and tell us all about the good point that you make. Riiiight.
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
11:59 am
Doggone/GA,
“Maybe you don’t know this: but EVERYONE winds up dead”
Oh yeah.
clyde
June 25th, 2009
11:59 am
I have never caused anyone to become a drug addict.Why should my taxes be used to assist them?
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
12:01 pm
clyde@ 11:59,
Because they are American citizens.
Paul
June 25th, 2009
12:02 pm
GOP for Thee
[[Now it’s your turn.]]
It’s pretty well played out, don’t you think?
I stated a position and supported it. You did the same.
Neither saw anything to cause a reconsideration -
Matilda
June 25th, 2009
12:02 pm
@@, I’m sorry for the loss of your sister. It’s a tragedy of which no one should make light. It could (and does) happen in any family. There simply are no simple explanations for things like that, especially why people kill themselves — in all the many ways that people do so.
But it ain’t about the mari-ja-hooch, Dear. Tens of millions of Americans burn the doob regularly and never stick needles in their arms, just as tens of millions of us have wine with dinner, or a few cocktails at a party, and never stick needles in our arms. Blaming what’s NOT the problem only keeps us from discovering and addressing what IS the problem – if that is even possible.
Yes, let’s tax America’s biggest cash crop and stop being China’s and the Saudi’s B—h. Deficits make us weak, not an hour or two of chill time on a Friday night.
DrinkSlinger
June 25th, 2009
12:04 pm
Bosch,
True, brother. Sometimes throwing someone in Prison or Rehab works, but only if that is their “rock bottom.” Addicts need to hit rock bottom before they decide to change.
By the way, my mother is an addict and nothing has helped her. Rehab, prison, losing her daughter… None of it. Her addiction has complete control of her.
Paul
June 25th, 2009
12:04 pm
ncgreybr
[[Isn’t it interesting that people who complain that Obama didn’t have credentials and was too inexperienced will happily admit that they would vote for Palin for President?]]
LOL! Touche!
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
12:05 pm
Booger,
“I honestly believe that he is so out of his depth on financial matters, that he doesn’t have any idea of the harm he is doing to our country. It doesn’t help that he has surrounded himself with politicians and lobbyist”
Bush isn’t president anymore. Obama is.
“Are you honestly trying to say that he or anyone on his team is qualified to run auto companies, control up to 40% of the financial capital of the country”
Yes. The people that were in charge of the failed institutions that came to Obama begging for cash obviously wasn’t qualified to run their own businesses, so I’ll let the government (made up of some pretty smart folks on Obama’s team) try to get them out of this.
“put together a national health program in 5 months without input from the health care industry”
They have had input from the health care industry because the folks in the industry know their industry is about to collapse just like the rest of us – and 5 months? What orafice did you pull that one out of?
DrinkSlinger
June 25th, 2009
12:06 pm
Clyde,
Because if we look out for others, and not complain about doing so, we become better Americans and better humans. Because it’s the right thing to do. Because that addict could be someone’s mother, daughter, father or son. Because that addict could be you.
@@
June 25th, 2009
12:06 pm
Bosch:
Please go back to ignoring me. You’re such a simpleton.
While my sister did make her own choices, it was her children that ultimately paid for them.
Paul
June 25th, 2009
12:07 pm
clyde 11:59
[[I have never caused anyone to become a drug addict.Why should my taxes be used to assist them?]]
Because it costs more not to?
Because it is one of the responsibilities of citizenship? (I never did anything to cause that hazardous materials spill, why should I have to pay to clean it up?)
Because it’s the Christian thing to do?
DrinkSlinger
June 25th, 2009
12:08 pm
Because up to this point, the only input the government has gotten from the healthcare industry has been in the form of lobbyists putting money in their pockets to keep the laws the way they are.
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
12:09 pm
DrinkSlinger,
Sorry to hear that about your mom. I understand the problem very personally as well. Sometimes all you can do is be there for support, if not for the addict themselves, for the ones they live with. And sometimes you just have to accept who and what they are and not try to judge. It’s their life.
Doggone/GA
June 25th, 2009
12:10 pm
“PoodleBoy-Original question was for Jay,not for one who still wears a collar and licks oneself in public”
Childish. You post to a public forum, you’re going to get answers from whoever has an opinion. You want an answer directly from Jay? Send him an email. And you might try growing up a bit too.
DrinkSlinger
June 25th, 2009
12:10 pm
Bosch,
Agreed.
GOP for Thee
June 25th, 2009
12:10 pm
Paul, since you have conceded, I won’t bother asking…again.
catlady
June 25th, 2009
12:11 pm
Whatcha wanta bet Palin’s NOT working on it? She’s too busy traveling all over to even take care of her own children, FGS! And no one in her family is up to “helping” her study up on current events, or even important past events. Will she be willing to run? You betcha. Will she be ready to run? A resounding NO. Are there Republican women who might be viable candidates for national office? Sure. But not If-I-Only-Had-a-Brain Palin.
Let’s give Pat Buchanan a test on some of the children’s classics he disparages her reading. And let’s give it to him on Spanish children’s classics! How about the stories of Ratoncito Perez? And I doubt Mr. Buchanan can claim to have graduated first in his class from BFU, or even BFHS, much less Harvard!
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
12:12 pm
@@,
Why so condescending? How did her children pay for her mistakes? Do they not have their own lives? Because of their experiences with their mother are they hopelessly damaged? Hopefully someone stepped in to take care of these children when their mother died, and gives them love and support.
suck my thumb
June 25th, 2009
12:14 pm
Doggone-Ditto and leave it at that,pup.
wbk
June 25th, 2009
12:16 pm
I think it is time for a new blog!! Palin 2012 or Sotomayor reads “The RED Badge of Courage”.
booger
June 25th, 2009
12:17 pm
Bosch,
You are grabbing at straws now, think I’ll sign off before the name calling begins.
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
12:19 pm
booger,
Truth hurts doens’t it? We’re you planning on calling me a bad name?
Paul
June 25th, 2009
12:23 pm
GOP
How on earth did you get ‘concede” out of
[[I stated a position and supported it. You did the same.
Neither saw anything to cause a reconsideration -]]
Wait, I know… the real answer is, Democrats love to go on and on and on and on, stating the same thing over and over and over and over
and never reconsider.
Wait, isn’t that the definition of an ideologue?
same difference -
ken
June 25th, 2009
12:24 pm
Sara didn’t become Governor through affirmative action. And I’m glad my airline pilot was not promoted through affirmative action.
suck my thumb
June 25th, 2009
12:25 pm
wbk,Palin-no chance of winning(and really was wrong person to begin with) & Sotomayer-maybe have someone read it to her so she understands(and really was wrong person to begin with)
Normal
June 25th, 2009
12:27 pm
Sorry to come in late like this, but I’ve been working harder than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest…Back in the early 70’s Ann Arbor Mi. had some law run out and for a period of time, it was legal to smoke pot on the streets. All around the country, it was said or thought that maybe the government would just follow Ann Arbor. The urban legend was that R. J. Reynolds had bought up all the cool names like Panama Red, Alcopoulco Gold, etc and if ever made legal, they would have the pot packed and put in vending machines within 24 hours.
I only mention this because I agree legalization is the correct course of action and the cigarette companies would have a new product to foist…Just sayin’
ncgreybr
June 25th, 2009
12:27 pm
When Jay asked “What Sotomayor has that Palin doesn’t so far”, my first thought was “intelligence”.
I always have to sadly laugh when people tell me I’m “afraid” of Palin. No…I afraid FOR America if someone as simplistic as Palin get into a powerful office. She would have been a heartbeat away from beiing President. THAT is truly fearful!
The saddest part is that when they were making fun of her on Saturday Night Live, they were using her own words. They didn’t even have to make up the comedy. There were SO many highly qualified, intelligent, middle-of-the-road Republican women that McCain could have picked….
@@
June 25th, 2009
12:27 pm
Bosch:
A child’s psyche is very fragile. It harbors emotional scars that inhibit. Her girls are doing well thanks to a father who had his life together. It wasn’t easy though…the youngest was determined to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Addiction (as you know all too well) is in the genetic makeup.
How many children of alcoholics/addicts repeat the addiction? The numbers are high.
How many children of alcoholics/addicts, if they, themselves don’t abuse, marry someone who does? I mean….if you couldn’t get it right the first time, why not go for a second attempt? Then more kids enter into the picture and the vicious cycle continues.
It’s all about the kids, Bosch. What kind of example are you setting for yours. You’ve frequently discussed your father’s/mother’s?? alcoholism. Have you examined your own?
Why am I condescending?
Because I find your thought process to be shallow at best.
You asked….
wbk
June 25th, 2009
12:49 pm
ncgreybr
June 25th, 2009
12:27 pm:
Are you measuring intelligence from the normal white male perspective or the liberal college performance. Intelligence is such a confusing word! I rather hear “He/She displays good commen sense!”.
Commen Sense! Well that blows most liberals out of the water!
Question
June 25th, 2009
1:06 pm
Someone remind us what PresBo’s qualifications and accomplishments were to serve as President. His “change we can believe in” seems to be leading to an increase in bureaucracy, unions (I believe UAW now owns GM), and unaccountable speading (with all of the earmarks he promised to eliminate)… Yup! Change all right (or should I say left).
ncgreybr
June 25th, 2009
1:25 pm
[[She was also being held to standards no VP candidate in history had ever been held to,]]
Like being able to think?
N.J
June 25th, 2009
1:33 pm
American anti-intellectualism is probably responsible for more of America’s problems, both domestically and internationally than any other single factor. Most recently Reagan’s own comptroller general accused him of diminishing the quality of government agencies by his constant attacks on government service, which led many of the best and brightest to avoid government service at every level. His assessment of the Reagan presidency and the problems it left his successor included:
******************************************************************************************
The G.A.O. said the new Chief Executive should abandon President Reagan’s practice of denouncing Federal agencies and bureaucrats, because such invective makes it difficult for the Government to ”attract, motivate and retain committed people.”
”After years of ‘Fed-bashing,’ the new President needs to change course,” it said, adding that the morale of Federal workers could be greatly improved if the President used public forums to express support for public servants.
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More recently was the “Brownie” event. Rather than select people with some sort of qualification for the cabinet level position they were being put in charge of Bush was inclined to prefer loyalty to him to actual experience in the area that the department dealt with.
Government, of any size is in fact a rather complex thing. Certainly one expects ones own doctor to have an education which has something to do with medicine. Running a country is certainly no less complex, and often lack of skillful government officials, elected or not, has been known to cost lives.
I would prefer a president with a bad bedside manner who was a skilled surgeon to be operating on me or my family. I expect no less of government.
Republicans of course had it in mind to create the conditions by which government could do nothing but fail, so they could then point their fingers at the failure as proof.
On the other hand, the Europeans have an extremely well educated civil service. In France, getting out of college is simply the first step in getting a government job. The next is a very, very exhaustive test, with many sections, which takes many weeks to finish. When you make that cut, you spend the next three years in a “Government Graduate School” the equivalent of a Phd level education in the United States, where you learn everything about general government and then move on to classwork in the specialized division you will be working in. Only after those years of post college education do you actually start working in government. This applies to every level of government, from building and zoning to teaching in Public Schools.
N.J
June 25th, 2009
1:50 pm
“Norway is a beautiful, country, and has the most attractive people in the world. It is however, stifling for anyone who is educated and ambitious.”
Hardly. With the advent of the European Union, you have a lot of people moving from other areas of Europe into Norway to set up businesses with government grants from their own countries. There is one town on the southern coast of Norway that is almost completely populated by Dutch citizens who have done so. One of the benefits that many European governments give their citizens when they are unemployed is the option to be give grants to start their own businesses. They can still collect some portion of their unemployment paychecks while attempting to get the business off the ground. They can use these grants to establish a business anywhere in the EU. While Norway isn’t part of the Union it it has mutual arrangements with the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Switzerland. So you can collect unemployment in any of these if you are from Norway and vice versa.
Norway Risk Assessment
Country Rating
Rating: A1
The political and economic situation is very good. A quality business environment has a positive influence on corporate payment behaviour. Corporate default probability is very low on average.
Norway also has some of the lowest inflation rates in Europe as well one of the lowest unemployment rates
Of course the various entrepreneurial welfare benefits allow a Norwegian to move to the Netherlands to establish a business, or an unemployed Dutch citizen to do the same in Norway. For a few year, the Dutch were using their government benefits to go to Norway to set up video rental businesses, for example.
N.J
June 25th, 2009
2:27 pm
“This article is Jay’s way of short changing Atlantans for the agenda. Because what really matters, 216,000 Americans laid off last week and the economy shrinking 5.5% last quarter, clearly shows Obama and the progessive agenda as the wrong direction for America.’
Obama has been in office for what, less than six months now. Of course when Bush’s tax cuts didn’t work etc, of course the main retort was, give it time.When Reagan’s tax cuts did not work the same reasons given by Republicans. OF course both Reagan and Bush asserted that because their FIRST tax cuts didnt seem to work, second ones were needed.
As Warren Buffet points out, the Obama stimulus was too small, and another one may be necessary. In fact this is what most economists recommended. A stimulus of more than a trillion and possibly two was what was recommended. Obama made one mistake. He didn’t immediately repeal the primary cause of the economic recession, the Bush tax cuts. They were responsible for the housing bubble and collapse. Thats where most of the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest were invested, just like the pre-1929 economic investments in real estate which created the exact same sort of economic bubble which ended up in the entire economic crash. The Great Depression was preceded by three very large tax cuts bringing the top rate down from about 70 percent to 25 percent in three stages. The last two occurred in the four years before the crash of 1929, and of course all that excess money was put into speculative ventures, the largest being real estate, on the theory that the price of real estate ALWAYS goes up.
The real turn around will start occurring shortly after Obama allows the Bush tax cuts to expire next year. The ONLY way those at the top will be able to avoid taxes is by spending it in job creating sectors of the economy, rather than speculative areas. This will of course, require them to do real work rather than sit on their asses collecting dividends and profit taking from their investments.
And the wealthy almost NEVER pay those tax rates, Their accountants advise them to invest them in the only ways that they can avoid those taxes, and when the top marginal tax rate on personal income is high, the only way to do that is to start a business or to be a direct partner in one rather than a passive investor.
It took Bush eight years to screw up a great economy, and large projected government surpluses. It will take a bit more than six months to repair that mess.
One must also consider that Obama’s policies must be filtered down through the Republican state government in Georgia.
N.J
June 25th, 2009
2:56 pm
Another problem Obama was stuck was was Bush’s “trickle down” bailouts. The ones the the Democrats were suggesting before the collapse would have largely prevented it and cost a whole lot less in the long run. It would have been cheaper to have readjusted the mortgages that people walked away from before they walked away from them. Then there would have been NO bad paper for the banks to have to walk away from. Of course this would have prevented the collapse of the investment bankers who were being hit on all sides to pay off the credit default swaps on those mortgages people walked out on to avoid paying more for their homes than they were now worth.
“A progressive bailout would look very different. It would relieve the banks of their burden by buying up mortgages from working people in trouble, rather than giving hundreds of billions to those who are most responsible for getting us into this crisis in the first place.”
Of course Bush and the Republicans largely fought any such effort to bail out those on the bottom and focused on bailing out those at the top.
I remember two years before the economic collapse, there was already talk about the tens of thousands of mortgage holders who were walking away from their mortgages, and everyone on the right was stating that in no way, shape or form, would this have ANY effect on the economy, while in the cloakroom of congress, they were already preparing for an economic collapse by passing legislation that totally altered the bankruptcy codes, making it impossible for a court to readjust the mortgages for these people who went into bankruptcy. Bush slipped in his rules making bankruptcy for the average person much more difficult well before the Democrats took control of Congress and most Democrats were trying to make the case for not making those changes in case of some economic crisis, either personal, or national.
One of Bush’s most amusing (or it would be if this change was not a large part of the cause of the current economic collapse) statement was:
“In recent years too many people have abused the bankruptcy laws,” Bush said. “They walked away from debts even when they had the ability to repay them.”
Those who OPPOSED the changes stated:
“Those who fought the bill’s passage said the change will fall especially hard on low-income working people, single mothers, minorities and the elderly and will remove a safety net for those who have lost their jobs or face crushing medical bills.”
As usual, the Democrats got it absolutely correctly and the Republicans got it absolutely wrong.\
Had the previous bankruptcy laws remained in place, this current economic mess need not have occurred. Had the bail out been from the bottom up, rather than top down, the same thing. The recession would either have been far less severe, or it would not have occurred at all, because there would have been other options than walking out from being under water on a mortgage, because no one would have been underwater on their mortgages at all.
This is too funny because by REMOVING the ability of the average person to have the courts readjust their mortgage liabilities, people simply WALKED because there was no longer a legal option for them by which the banks still would have collected a good percentage of what was owed to them, rather than simply getting the house back and past mortgage payments.
The Bush people, and the Republican majority congress were anticipating a collapse in the housing markets as early as 2003, but they were totally lacking in any sort of awareness of how this would sweep through the general economy, or simply didn’t care all that much because they were as well positioned to make money in this economy as in the previous one.
N.J
June 25th, 2009
4:31 pm
Even better. The sub primes blamed for everything made up such a substantially small percentage of the total amount of mortgages. The total amount of sub primes in dollars at the time of the housing bubble was 1.3 trillion. These made up about 43 percent of all foreclosures.
The value of all outstanding residential mortgages, owed by USA households to purchase residences housing at most four families, was US$9.9 trillion as of year-end 2006, and US$10.6 trillion as of midyear 2008. At this time sub primes made up 6.8 percent of all mortgages. The total amount of dollars defaulted on by people with sub primes has been estimated to have been as low as 300 billion dollars and as high as 570 billion. Democrats were calling to simply bail out a PORTION of this total. That is all the banks would have to do would be to eat a portion of these losses by resetting the mortgage rates to affordable levels rather than doubling or tripling the monthly payments. Highest estimates of the cost for the government to have done this at the time ranged at about 150 billion dollars. This in effect, would have resulted in foreclosure rates which were closer to the average annual rates than the huge number of foreclosures that started occurring when the ARM’s started resetting at much higher rates due to increased interest rates. By September 2007, the rates of foreclosure were triple the average rates. Though subprimes made up less than 7 percent of ALL morgages by August 2008 9.2 percent of all mortgages were in default Between August 2007 and August 2008 about 940,000 homes had gone into foreclosure. In the following year this increased to 2.4 million as housing prices collapsed.
This could have been avoided had Republicans simply gotten out of the way and spent a quarter of the amount of money adjusting the mortgage rates of the initial sub prime borrowers who went into default, essentially preventing the defaults from occurring at all. As it stands ALL homes have lost close to something like 4 trillion dollars in value, something which could have been prevented by spending one sixteenth that sum before this occurred.
Pitt
June 26th, 2009
1:05 pm
I am again reminded why I cancelled my AJC subscription years ago and why I feel the need to bathe any time I read the comments sections after an article.
The only reason that armed revolt has not yet happened in this country is because half the population still cant believe what they are seeing out of this Congress and administration and the other half are just idiots.
Richard, Dubuque
June 26th, 2009
1:48 pm
Why is it that when people discuss “political idiots,” that Joe Biden rarely comes up? Here we have the class clown as VP and the media and leftist loones make it convenient to overlook his gaffes. And, concerning the comments about Obama being a law professor, it is more accurate to note that he was an adjunct. An adjunct is one who was looking for a job in academics and takes a part-time teaching position. They are not throughly vetted as they would be for a tenure-track professorship. And, those noting that Obama worked as a lawyer in Chicago, please don’t forget to add that he billed about 17 hours work per week over a four year period and that his supervisor stated in an interview that Obama could never get the “big picture” of the cases he was handling.
Janine
June 26th, 2009
2:32 pm
Pat Buchanan is an idiot. But don’t put down the entire Republican party because of him. Now I do admire Sotomayor for improving those areas of her life that were lacking. But that doesn’t mean I like her as a person or as a nominee for the SC. She is still a racist and is wrong in her interpretation of what the Constitution is all about. She should NOT be on the SC. I also agree with the author that Gov. Palin would be wise to improve herself in area where she may be lacking (or even just perceived as lacking). That said, however, I still say that she has much more executive experience than our current President has (and she wasn’t even running for the top spot!).
Bill
June 26th, 2009
2:43 pm
Just say NO to SoeteroMayor.