Props to President Obama for taking Michelle out on a romantic date to New York last night.

It was exciting not just for the Obamas, but for the New Yorkers who got to view them, the restaurant chef and staff who served them, the diners in the restaurant who applauded as they left, the actors in the Broadway show they attended --- and the one that struck me the most, the surprised guy sitting next to Obama at the play. [More...]

In an otherwise very good editorial, The New York Times makes one assertion I completely disagree with:

Supreme Court nominees should not go into specifics about cases they might judge.

I have always disagreed with this formulation and I still do. Why shouldn't judicial nominees indicate their views on the issues they are likely to face? What could be more important to know about judicial nominees? I do not understand this convention of evaluating judicial nominees and I never have. It is wrong.

Speaking for me only

Mortgage rates were way, way up last week and because of the rise in rates for 30 year loans the appetite for ARM loans is apparently back, big time.

Borrowers who can't afford the new, higher rates for traditional mortgages are looking at ARMs again and banks are happily handing them out, according to the Field Check Group: [More...]

David Kirkpatrick of the NYTimes writes one of the more remarkable (in a bad way) articles yet on Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Kirkpatrick writes:

The selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court has opened a new battle in the fight over affirmative action and other race-conscious remedies for patterns of inequality, with each side invoking the election of the first black president in support of its cause.

Really? Why would that be? Actually what the Sotomayor nomination truly highlights is the wholesale adoption of judicial activism by extreme conservatives to roll back through judicial means race conscious remedies enacted by the elected representatives of the people. The champion of this judicial activism is none other than Chief Justice John Roberts. More . . .

I'm sure there's lots to talk about. Since my earlier attempt at an open thread turned into one devoted to Britain's Got Talent, here's one for all other topics.

Marcia Powell, a mentally ill prostitute and drug addict, was in prison awaiting transfer to a psychiatric facility. Prison officials kept her outdoors in an unshaded cage for 4 hours in 107 degree heat. She died.

At least, it won't happen again.

Charles L. Ryan, the department's director, ordered the temporary suspension last week after the death of Marcia Powell at Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville. Powell, 48, died of heat-related causes after spending four hours in temperatures that reached 107.5 degrees.

Powell's death has led to the suspension of three prison officials and a criminal investigation into their conduct.

The Sunday New York Times Magazine has a long article on how Bill Clinton is mellowing. And aging.

Clinton at 62 looks older than the boy president who dominated American politics in the 1990s, but he remains more robust than most men his age and full of intellectual energy. His left hand trembled a little bit during dinner, as it tends to do late in the day. It worried him enough at one point that he had himself tested for Parkinson’s disease, but the results came back negative; his doctor says he has just signed too many autographs over the years. When I mentioned that he had to get hearing aids during his White House tenure because of the effects of too many campaign rallies, he cheerfully pulled out the latest equipment from his ear and showed off how sleek and virtually invisible it was.

So, What's he up to now? [More...]

Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is the subject of three investigations for civil rights violations resulting from his policies involving the pursuit undocumented immigrants, is complaining the investigations are politically motivated.

In his letter, [Arapaio attorney] Driscoll said that a civil rights probe of the Arpaio operation began in early March, weeks after four influential Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee called for an investigation into alleged discrimination and possible constitutional violations in arrests and in police searches and seizures.

The investigation appeared on a list of accomplishments the Justice Department prepared for reporters in April, after the Obama administration had been in office 100 days. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has said that reinvigorating the enforcement of civil rights laws is a high priority.

Another of his complaints: [More...]

Update 2:33 pm: Live stream here and here. I've got more up at PopLeft. And the winner is: Diversity!

Top Three: Susan Boyle, Julian Smith and Diversity. Third place: Julian Smith. Second: Susan Boyle. She was totally gracious. She said, "The best won." She smiled, laughed and raised her skirt and showed some leg.

Will Susan Boyle win Britain's Got Talent? the competition is underway. You can watch live streaming here. [More...]

John Cole takes a moment to laugh at Jon Chait's absurd defense of Jeffery Rosen and The New Republic. John does a nice job of it but really, is there even a point to all this anymore? Who trusts TNR on anything anymore? Who trusts Jeffery Rosen on judicial nominees? Given his track record (consider his strident defense of John Roberts) pretty much makes him someone to use as evidence of the opposite of what he argues, do we really need to debunk Rosen now?

TNR went around the bend long ago. It will take years of actual good work before we can even consider TNR and Jeffery Rosen as having any credibility at this point.

Speaking for me only

Bob Somerby documents Chris "Tweety" Matthews' long history of sexism and misogyny. It is especially acute in what he tolerates from his guests. Somerby recounts Tweety's applauding of G. Gordon Liddy's sexist rants during the Gore campaign:

Byron York writes:

In 2001, President George W. Bush nominated former Justice Department lawyer Miguel Estrada to a seat on the federal courts of appeals. . . . [S]ome of the very people who are today praising Sotomayor spent their time devising extraordinary measures to kill Estrada's chances. Born in Honduras, Estrada came to the United States at 17, not knowing a word of English. He learned the language almost instantly, and within a few years was graduating with honors from Columbia University and heading off to Harvard Law School. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, was a prosecutor in New York, and worked at the Justice Department in Washington before entering private practice.

What Byron York will not acknowledge is that unlike Democratic opposition to Estrada, which was based on his ideology, not once did a Democrat or progressive say that Estrada lived a "privileged" life filled with "preferential treatment." Yet that is precisely what York's conservative cohorts have done to Sotomayor. When York confronts Michael Goldfarb, Fred Barnes, Bill Bennett, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Tom Tancredo and the rest of the despicable racialists in his Party, then come back and talk to us.

Speaking for me only