The Not So Wise Latina

Eric already blogged on Ricci, but Ace  brings up an amusing point.    While the decision was five to four, along coservative liberal lines, the count was actually nine to zero against the Wise Latina, Sonia Sotomayor, via Ace:

Wise Latina Overruled 9-0? [ace]: Ed Whelan at Bench Memos argues the decision is actually 9-zip against Sotomayor — because even Justice Ginsburg says (though only in a footnote) that the appellate court should have remanded the case back to the district court, not summarily affirmed the lower decision.

The one’s so called moderate is not mainstream.   She not even a mainstream liberal.

Bernie Madoff hit the jackpot at sentencing, today… getting the maximum 150 years. The Guardian:

The disgraced financier Bernie Madoff has been sentenced to the maximum 150 years in prison for masterminding a $65bn (£38bn) fraud that wrecked the lives of thousands of investors.

The US district judge Denny Chin described the fraud as “staggering” and said the “breach of trust was massive” and that a message was being sent by the sentence. There had been no letters submitted in support of Madoff’s character, he said. Victims in the courtroom clapped as the term was read out.

The sentence, which means the 71-year old fraudster will end his days in prison, was handed down at an emotional hearing in a lower Manhattan courtroom, where victims were given the chance to tell how the fraud had destroyed their livelihoods.

Ya know, there’s no question in my mind the guy deserved it. And more, in my view.  But, I have to tell you, I wonder of the sentence would be so stiff, but for the current ‘kill the rich’ message coming from our government of late.  There seems to me a desire on the part  of some to label all the well- to- do as criminals, (the only way one can be rich is if they’ve stolen it) and this case will serve as a reinforcement for that effort.

The democratic portions of the goverment of Honduras have acted to preserve their constitution and oust a wanna be dictatator for life, Mel Zelaya.    So which side does President Barack Obama’s Secretaray of State take?   The same side as Hugo Chavez and Castro.   From the Wall Street Journal:

Hugo Chávez’s coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation’s constitution.

It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking.

But Honduras is not out of the Venezuelan woods yet. Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya’s abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground

Allah Pundit, Hot Air has more:

In a nutshell, Zelaya wanted another term as president so he decided to hold a popular referendum on whether he should be eligible. Minor problem: The Honduran constitution can’t be amended by popular referendum so the country’s supreme court ordered the vote canceled. Zelaya tried to go ahead with it anyway. Literally every other arm of the Honduran government — judiciary, legislature, military — was against him, to the point where the troops who arrested him this morning were evidently acting on a court order. Why such strong, unified opposition?

Is this all we can expect from the Oama’s administration so-called “smart diplomacy?   It is sure hard to have smart diplomacy when your Secretary of State acts like a moron.

Call Mrs. Clinton’s action what you will.  They are neither smart, nor consistent with American values.   We can and should expect more from our Secretary of State.

The Washington Post website is reporting:

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has ruled that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.

New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.

The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide, potentially limiting the circumstances in which employers can be held liable for decisions when there is no evidence of intentional discrimination against minorities.

It will also cause people to look seriously at why Sotomayor has been nominated.

I note with sadness, the passing of  Washington Times editorialist Mary Lou Forbes.  I got the news by way of Quin Hillyer, who says:

Mary Lou was a legend in the conservative journalism world. Way back in 1959, a full half century ago, she won the Pulitzer Prize. For the past 27 years, she has worked like a dervish to make the commentary pages of the Wash Times a lively and essential outlet for conservative opinion — one that was especially important in the 15 of those years before the Internet opened more doors. For all those years, her Times pages (along with the companion pages that were the province of Tony Snow, Tod Lindberg, Helle Dale, Tony Blankley, and Deborah Simmons) were an oasis of unimaginable comfort and great information and inspiration for conservatives struggling to be heard. So many conservative opinion-mongers got their first big breaks on the op-ed/commentary pages of the Wash Times, through Mary Lou’s services!

Remarkable that at age 83, she was still in the traces… (If you will allow an allusion to the writings of Jack London). 

(Blogged from the Palm Treo)

… is here.

Gee, I can’t imagine why the EPA wouldn’t want you to know that their own internal report shows clearly that AGW is a crock of bull feces,  as was metntioned the other day can you?

Television pitchman Billy Mays — who built his fame by appearing on commercials and infomercials promoting household products and gadgets — died Sunday.

Mays, 50, was found unresponsive by his wife inside his Tampa, Fla., home at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, according to the Tampa Police Department.

Police said there were no signs of forced entry to Mays’ residence and foul play is not suspected. Authorities said an autopsy should be complete by Monday afternoon.

“Although Billy lived a public life, we don’t anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days. Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times,” Mays wife, Deborah, said in a statement on Sunday.

So says Fox News.

I’m quite sure I’ll have more comments on this later.

We’re still working on the issue…. we appear to have something with PHP going. Unclear what.

Isn’t this FUN, kids?

Twitter links are down for the moment. I’ll be putting them back up tommrow night, I hope.

There’s a few other background things I’ve got offline, too, until we get this thing figured out.

• RT@jaketapper internationla biz times reports mosques have been banned from memorial services for Neda http://is.gd/19eSn #
• @pinkelephantpun RT It's good. Is he seriously saying that gov't HC can run like the Mayo Clinic? me: But Mayo is soooo fattening.  in reply to pinkelephantpun #
• Say whtUwil about Sanford& I'll sign it. But does it strike anyone else as odd that all these republicans suddenly got Randy after 1/210/08?  #
• @jaketapper How many Republican sex scandals since 1-20-08?  in reply to jaketapper #
• who stole Sanford's emails? isn't that a felony?  #
• #tcot Is Pajams Media having server trouble this morning?  #
• if cap and tax doesn't cause people to rethink the dems what will?  #
• BITSBLOG!!!!  Remember That Canadian Healthcare We were Supposed to Emulate? http://bit.ly/11NYaD #
• BITSBLOG!!!! Remember That Canadian Healthcare We were Supposed to Emulate?  @TCOT#HHRS #RLRS @Talkmaster http://bit.ly/11NYaD #
• BITSBLOG!!!! Remember That Canadian Healthcare We were Supposed to Emulate? #TCOT http://bit.ly/11NYaD #
• Bitsblog having server trouble. Should be back up tonight sometime #

• RT@jaketapper internationla biz times reports mosques have been banned from memorial services for Neda http://is.gd/19eSn #
• @pinkelephantpun RT It's good. Is he seriously saying that gov't HC can run like the Mayo Clinic? me: But Mayo is soooo fattening.  in reply to pinkelephantpun #
• Say whtUwil about Sanford& I'll sign it. But does it strike anyone else as odd that all these republicans suddenly got Randy after 1/210/08?  #
• @jaketapper How many Republican sex scandals since 1-20-08?  in reply to jaketapper #
• who stole Sanford's emails? isn't that a felony?  #
• #tcot Is Pajams Media having server trouble this morning?  #
• if cap and tax doesn't cause people to rethink the dems what will?  #
• BITSBLOG!!!!  Remember That Canadian Healthcare We were Supposed to Emulate? http://bit.ly/11NYaD #
• BITSBLOG!!!! Remember That Canadian Healthcare We were Supposed to Emulate?  @TCOT#HHRS #RLRS @Talkmaster http://bit.ly/11NYaD #
• BITSBLOG!!!! Remember That Canadian Healthcare We were Supposed to Emulate? #TCOT http://bit.ly/11NYaD #
• Bitsblog having server trouble. Should be back up tonight sometime #

• RT@jaketapper internationla biz times reports mosques have been banned from memorial services for Neda http://is.gd/19eSn #
• @pinkelephantpun RT It's good. Is he seriously saying that gov't HC can run like the Mayo Clinic? me: But Mayo is soooo fattening.  in reply to pinkelephantpun #
• Say whtUwil about Sanford& I'll sign it. But does it strike anyone else as odd that all these republicans suddenly got Randy after 1/210/08?  #
• @jaketapper How many Republican sex scandals since 1-20-08?  in reply to jaketapper #
• who stole Sanford's emails? isn't that a felony?  #
• #tcot Is Pajams Media having server trouble this morning?  #
• if cap and tax doesn't cause people to rethink the dems what will?  #
• BITSBLOG!!!!  Remember That Canadian Healthcare We were Supposed to Emulate? http://bit.ly/11NYaD #
• BITSBLOG!!!! Remember That Canadian Healthcare We were Supposed to Emulate?  @TCOT#HHRS #RLRS @Talkmaster http://bit.ly/11NYaD #
• BITSBLOG!!!! Remember That Canadian Healthcare We were Supposed to Emulate? #TCOT http://bit.ly/11NYaD #
• Bitsblog having server trouble. Should be back up tonight sometime #

• RT@jaketapper internationla biz times reports mosques have been banned from memorial services for Neda http://is.gd/19eSn #
• @pinkelephantpun RT It's good. Is he seriously saying that gov't HC can run like the Mayo Clinic? me: But Mayo is soooo fattening.  in reply to pinkelephantpun #
• Say whtUwil about Sanford& I'll sign it. But does it strike anyone else as odd that all these republicans suddenly got Randy after 1/210/08?  #
• @jaketapper How many Republican sex scandals since 1-20-08?  in reply to jaketapper #
• who stole Sanford's emails? isn't that a felony?  #
• #tcot Is Pajams Media having server trouble this morning?  #
• if cap and tax doesn't cause people to rethink the dems what will?  #
• BITSBLOG!!!!  Remember That Canadian Healthcare We were Supposed to Emulate? http://bit.ly/11NYaD #
• BITSBLOG!!!! Remember That Canadian Healthcare We were Supposed to Emulate?  @TCOT#HHRS #RLRS @Talkmaster http://bit.ly/11NYaD #
• BITSBLOG!!!! Remember That Canadian Healthcare We were Supposed to Emulate? #TCOT http://bit.ly/11NYaD #
• Bitsblog having server trouble. Should be back up tonight sometime #

From The Canadian Press:

HAMILTON— A critically-ill premature-born baby from Hamilton is all alone in a Buffalo, N.Y., hospital after she was turned away for treatment at local facility and transferred across the border without her parents, who don’t have passports.

Ava Stinson was born Thursday at St. Joseph’s Hospital, 14 weeks premature.

A provincewide search for an open neonatal intensive care unit bed came up empty, leaving no choice but to send the two pound, four ounce baby to Buffalo.

Her parents Natalie Paquette and Richard Stinson couldn’t follow their child because as of June 1, a passport is required to cross the border into the United States.

Now of course, from our own left we’re going to hear about the passport situation being stupid.  It goes without saying, however, that that entire situation would not have come to pass but for a substandard health care system in Canada.

What we have here, is a graphic example of what happens when we limit access to health care. Fortunate for that baby, and those parents, there is no such system yet here in these United States.  And being in Hamilton, they were close enough to the border to get to a stateside hospital.

I live near Buffalo myself.  Trust me, dear reader, when I tell you that this is not an unusual occurrence, in terms of people coming across the border because the Canadian system turned them away .

Just something to keep in mind as we listen to the Democrats trying to sell us  on government health care.

Some of you, earlier this evening, will have noticed some strange goings on with the look and feel of the blog.

What happened was that  was tinkering, trying to set up a user-level theme switcher.  It’s not working, yet, but I’m close. I’ve got the basic functions, but not the look I want in each case. The issue is the stuff I”ve added to each theme, has to be dealt with differently. It’ll take some time. I’ll let you know…

Not that I ever read the  man’s column in anything like regularity, but it’s interesting to note the amount of smoke rising from the ears of his readers, and from Washington Post editors, as regards his recent decision to terminate his contract. Amusing in the extreme, to note the lengths to which both Froomkin and the Post go to deny the obvious.

Andrew Alexander writing in his column this morning, doesn’t do much to quell the discussion:

First, it’s not about ideology. My original Omblog post quoted Hiatt as saying Froomkin’s “political orientation was not a factor in our decision.” In my discussions with Froomkin, he has not cited ideology as the primary reason. And several veteran Post reporters have dismissed that as the cause. In an online chat this week, Post Pulitzer-winning columnist Gene Weingarten, who expressed “respect” for Froomkin and regret that White House Watch was ending, said: “I don’t know why Froomkin’s column was dropped, but I can tell you that the diabolical conspiracy talk is nuts. Froomkin wasn’t dropped because he is too liberal; things just don’t work that way at the Post.” It’s also worth noting that The Post hired Ezra Klein, a liberal political blogger, within the past several months.

Second, reduced traffic played a big role. White House Watch had substantial traffic during the Bush administration, but it declined noticeably when President Obama took office. The Post will not disclose precise numbers. Froomkin acknowledges the drop but told me much of it can be blamed on a change in format and poor promotion.

Well, now.  If it’s not about ideology, then why the huge drop off in traffic?  Clearly, Froomkin had a rather rabid group of followers who suffered from Bush Derangement Syndrome… who once a Democrat was in office, suddenly no longer needed the services of someone watching the white house and its actions closely.  In fairness to Froomkin…

He said that shifting White House Watch from a column to a blog when Obama took office was disruptive to his audience and “dramatically reduced the number of page views per reader.” He also said poor promotion, especially through links from the home page, had caused traffic to dip. “I felt that with adequate promotion, page views would have been much higher,” he said.

Then why, I wonder, would those things have been changed subsequent to Obama taking the oath of office?  Is it possible that the Washington Post didn’t find closely watching the actions of this White House to be all that attractive?  Again, one can only wonder if ideology isn’t the driver here. Here’s the problem; Froomkin stopped writing with any degree of fire at all, once Obama was in office because that was always the purpose of the column… to get a Democrat in the White House.  One of my oldest and dearest friends once told me before he died, if you can write with fire, don’t write.  Froomkin, following Januray 20th of this year,  had no fire, because with a Democrat as a target, his heart was not in the work.

I have always said that the Washington Post knows its audience, knows full well where its bread is buttered, and is about servicing that narrow vision.  That narrow Liberal worldview.  I see nothing in the back and forth on this change in status for Froomkin… including the half-assed denials, that would change my mind on the point.

Of course, comment is always welcome.  Anyone care to try to change my mind, here?