Sen Hutchison saying she wll give Sotomayor a “fair shot”…ummmmm. Unfortunate language, maybe? Trying, along with Cornyn, to make nice

It may be that Kay is attempting the moderation dance prior to her gubernatorial run. It’s funny how you start finding your way back to sanity during election season, only to lost it again afterward, isn’t it?

Good Morning Christy and Firedogs -

drivin’ by with an fyi –

CSPAN will be broadcasting from America’s Future Now conference this morning starting at 10 am et – (formerly Take Back America )

Jane and Digby listed among attendees

It’s going to be a great conference — sorry I couldn’t make it this year but The Peanut’s kindergarten graduation is tomorrow and I wasn’t going to miss that for the world. *g*

Certainly an eye on that. More in our weekend papers about the Perry secession remark. That really hit a nerve and has made her look the more sane. Our lege has been in session, so state budget in the news, so his “refusal” on federal money makes him look the more nuts. What a tune!!

Seems that it will be on CSpan-2 here. To start shortly.
(Kindy graduation is the cutest one of all, for sure. Have fun.)

Cornyn and Hutchison both know that the Texas Republican Party needs desperately to avoid mobilizing Hispanic voters in Texas for the Democratic Party. Texas is becoming increasingly Hispanic (The median age of Hispanic citizens in Texas is 19. For non-Hispanic Whites it’s 41 and for Blacks it’s 39). Hispanics vote at significantly lower rates than others in Texas. Cornyn and Hutchison would both prefer a low-key confirmation process that would allow them to vote against Sotomayor without looking too much like racists. The more the opposition to Sotomayor is seen as anti-Hispanic, the worse it is for both of them, but especially for Hutchison. On top of that, there’s a huge gender gap in support for Sotomayor. While all the attention is on the Hispanic angle, the Republicans are alienating the suburban white women that Hutchison is depending on in both the Republican primary and in the general election.

I think Reed is waiting for the OPR report before bringing Johnsen’s nomination to the floor. This is what Senator Whitehouse had to say about it.

I plan to help Chairman Leahy on the floor with the confirmation of Dawn Johnsen. I think it’s a fight we can win directly without other holds. Moreover, because it allows us to discuss the misdeeds at OLC, the torture memos,the OPR reprt – if it’s out by then – I think it’s a good fight to have.{My Bold}

Here’s a link to the agenda for the America’s Future:
http://now2009.confabb.com/con…..w/sessions

It’s a 3 day conference. Digby is listed for Tuesday, Jane for Wednesday.

Kindy graduation is the cutest one of all, for sure. Have fun.

oh it is!

Thanks Christy. And congratulations on the graduation.

actively encouraging them to be aired, debated and discussed

the one thing I want for my kids as we send the 5th one off to college – dear gaia, help to foster rudimentary critical thinking skills

It’s really difficult to imagine a higher education without having some critical thinking skills int he mix. But I don’t see how most kids get that in their elementary and secondary educations with so much being taught to “the tests” and so little wiggle room for creative thinking and outside the box contemplation.

It’s all “fill in the bubble” test taking skills for so many kids these days. Without parental nudging, most of these kids won’t have that in hand when they enter college, which is a shame — because they then don’t have it to take on with them to the workforce.

They had a pizza party for the kids today as a prize for doing the best in the accelerated reader program at their school. Had to run end of the year prize bags over for that, then run to pick up the FIL from dialysis — it’s been one of those errands all around days here. *g*

Can’t wait to see them all tomorrow. I’m sure it will be adorable.

And Republicans don’t exactly have a lot of the women’s vote to spare, given how abysmal female GOP support has been in every recent poll I’ve seen.

I am hoping that Dr. Tiller’s assassination puts some of these Rightards on notice that they cannot be quite as cavalier towards women and their issues as they have been. I don’t want his death to be in vain. We need Dawn Johnsen and good women like her!

I think i was one of the last sets of graduates in the 90s to get critical thinking as part of my high school curriculum. Part of it was our final social studies course, which was ‘Problems of Democracy’ where the only thing we did was to follow current events and discuss every aspect of them good and bad. It taught us to question everything solidly. This was after years of civics as background and general knowledge from everything we’d learned.

The other was my english course, which was an Advanced Placement version. We actively wrote and dissected our reading assignments and debated them actively in a small class that had students from every clique in it. From the ultra conservatives, to the liberals and the artists to the those who weren’t so much on a side. I have to say THAT class was fun, with the knock down drag out debates that went on. I learned a lot, while learning how to tear a story apart and form my own opinion on that. I’m mostly pissed off that many students won’t get that anymore thanks to NCLB. Or they won’t have any idea how to do that if they still can get into the course.

That pic is disturbing on many levels..

I’m hoping that younger women sit up and start noticing how things have eroded in terms of support for birth control and other medical provision for them over the last few years. They take it for granted that services will always be there — but that won’t be the case if people keep sitting silently by and not standing up for their own protection.

Older women remember what things were like when abortions were back alley illegal. And a lot of us are old enough to remember the stories told to us by others about that time — and about how things were before birth control and sex education and choices being able to be made. It’s time we took that personal one-on-one, woman to woman education seriously again. And for boys, too — it isn’t just one sex that ought to be both educated and responsible about the consequences of ill-considered actions.

It’s incredibly powerful, isn’t it? The intensity of the gaze seemed perfect for this. It’s a great photo on a number of levels at once.

given the current political mood in her state and among her state’s rethug leadership, is there anything else she can do if she wants to get elected (moderate herself) and simultaneouls ykeep the base happy (follow the Bachmann script)?

My understanding from several Senate staffers is that the hope was to have her in place before the OPR report dropped, if at all possible. Because the fall-out from that reporting will be tough to deal with absent a confirmed head of the office in place. But that was weeks ago and now no one is talking about it with the GM and Chrysler messes, so? We still wait, I suppose…but I keep pushing anyway because it’s important.

It’s really crazy how politically schizophrenic some of these folks have to be, twisting themselves into pretzels for the primary and then untwisting themselves, appearance-wise anyway, for the general.

it’s what their party has come to now, that it’s impossible for them get elected without being schizophrenic pretzels. Well, that and rallying around torture and War Crimes, blatant anti-Latino racism, and defending (or excusing and concern trolling) terrorism against healthcare professionals, all while simultaneously passing themselves off as the ever-reasonable party of fiscal and moral responsibility and sanity. They need to seriously consider giving up.

Here is the MSN business headline. I swear, the ‘Onions’ days are numbered.

GM files for bankruptcy; stocks soar

Congrats, what a great time of the year!

It is awfully difficult to snark some of the reality these days. Too bizarre.

I do wonder sometimes how anyone can wall off that much discord in their own head all at one time.

that is difficult only if one has a conscience instead of just a hankering for political power at any expense. Unfortunately, this type of problem tends to attract the worst type of politico – megalomanic pathological liars with sociopathic personalities.

The question is why is Obama allowing Johnsen’s nomination to twist slowly in the wind. The answer is because he wants to.

Thanks for bringing Dawn Johnsen back to the front page. Do we have any kind of a count for who would vote for cloture/confirmation? Where are Snowe and Collins?

Lugar has already said he would vote for cloture and confirmation. Seems like this could move forward soon.

He doesn’t seem to really get behind his nominees, does he? He nominates them, and just lets things take their course. We need an activist President, not a passive President.

dunno about those two, but here’s the headline on our newest Dem:

“Matthew Yglesias » Specter Waffling on Dawn Johnsen Cloture” ;P

Sadly, no one can get a firm answer from Specter on that. Or, if they have, I haven’t heard about it yet. Same with Ben Nelson, Collins, Snowe and a number of others.

I got a noncommittal response back from Sen. Byrd on it when I contacted his office, too.

As I wrote a coupla weeks ago, the WH hasn’t put muscle behind this at all to push it, so Senators are allowing it to languish because they aren’t sticking their necks — and political capital — out without the President doing the same. Beyond frustrating, but I keep pushing anyway.

As you know, much of the opposition to Johnsen is centered on her views concerning reproductve rights.
I wonder how yesterday’s tragic murder will impact this.

I’ve been wondering that, too — and I have some e-mails out, but haven’t gotten answers on them as yet. Haven’t had time to make calls today, but will do so as the week progresses if I haven’t gotten answers.

Just to let you know where some younger women are, when my daughter was doing her internship in DC about 3-4 years ago, she spent most of the week answering phones for her Rep and doing Congress Tours — We’re walking, we’re walking, but she also had to write a thesis. Her’s was on Pro-Choice Rights. That’s my girl! She probably remembers when her younger brother was two and I loved taking him with me to Pro-Choice demonstrations. To give the group a little more diversity. Besides, making my voice known, I wanted the people driving by the protest to see all the different kinds of people who supported Women’s Rights.

Here are Represenatives King and Bachman going after Johnsen on May 19, 2009 on the floor of the House for comparing some anti-abortionists to the KKK.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjgyNEWl798

Christy, did the Peanut like her kitty?

Awesome. Maybe the Republicans would rather change their mind and allow that Truth Commission after all.

They must be weeping at the Onion. Haaa!

How about we put Dawn Johnsen up for the Supreme Court?