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

Jay Leno says goodbye to the Tonight Show after 17 years tonight. Here are some highlights from his monologue.

As you know, this is our last show after 17 years. I want to thank all the people that made it possible - Michael Jackson, Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton ...

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Sen. Ted Kennedy and Max Baucus have dueling health care reform proposals. Politico has more on Kennedy's plan.

I just got my renewal policy yesterday. My premium is going up a whopping $250.00 per month -- I have no diseases, haven't been sick and didn't change age groups. What gives?

According to Anthem (BCBS) it's because Colorado passed a law last year preventing employers from considering a group's health care risk or prior history. So, according to Anthem, healthy groups have to pay for the less healthy groups. [More...]

It's LA 9, Denver 7 at the commercial break. Update: Oh-Oh, LA up by 13 at half time. Update: Lakers crush the Nuggets. Oh well, there's always next year.

I only found out there was a game 10 minutes ago while I was barbecuing, which I've always been very afraid to do alone. Sure enough, the food was done, the flames were high, the grill was smoking and I turned it off, but the flame wouldn't go out.

After 5 minutes, I finally called the TL Kid (who usually does the grilling) to ask what to do, and he was at the Nuggets game. I'm sure he loved getting my distress call. He knew just what to do (turn the knob the other way to "off" -- I had it turned to "low".) An all grill dinner: Hamburger, vidalia onion, asparagus and mushroom caps. And I didn't have to call the Fire Department. (I bet they also are watching the game and would not have been thrilled to hear from me.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

My gawd, the chip on his shoulder is becoming a boulder. Stuart Taylor writes:

Princeton University was guilty of "an institutional pattern of discrimination" against Chicanos and Puerto Ricans, then-sophomore Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a letter published in the May 10, 1974 edition of the student newspaper, The Daily Princetonian. . . . Some may see the fact that Princeton awarded Sotomayor a summa cum laude degree and the prestigious Pyne Prize when she graduated in 1976 as evidence of her unparalleled brilliance in overcoming a "total absence of regard, concern, and respect" for people such as her.

And some may see Sotomayor's letter as evidence that she was predisposed to look for the worst, not the best, in the institution that had afforded her such opportunities. She now sits on Princeton's Board of Trustees.

Some may wonder if Stuart Taylor realizes what his writings say about him. Adam Serwer has more.

Speaking for me only

Phil Spector was sentenced to 19 years to life today for the death of Lana Clarkson.

His lawyer said he was wrongfully convicted:

Attorney Doron Weinberg maintained that Spector was convicted wrongly. “The evidence did not establish Mr. Spector’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” the lawyer said.

The sentence included 15 years for second-degree murder, with a four year enhancement for gun possession. He showed no emotion during the sentencing.

Eric Boehlert takes apart an outrageous AP piece on Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Read Eric for the gory details of the racism and unfairness, but I want to focus on AP's new definition of "wealthy." From the article:

There are two sides to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor: a Latina from a blue-collar family and a wealthy member of America's power elite. . . . She now earns more than $200,000 a year . . .

200,000 a year now is "wealthy" for the AP? Let's hope so. It was not always this way. Funny that when the AP discusses President Obama plan to return the tax rates for person earning over $250,000 a year to Clinton era levels, that is not considered raising taxes on the "wealthy," but on "middle class" Americans. An example:

I've never liked to stay at motels with ground level rooms and big windows that you enter from the outside.

Here's another reason not to stay at one: In Colorado Springs early this morning a deer charged through the window of a motel room, and went wild inside. The hotel guest had the foresight (and courage) to get him into the bathroom and then lock the door.

The panicked deer destroyed the toilet and flooded the room. The man says he's a maintenance worker for the hotel, so he'll have to repair the damage himself.

The deer was tranquilized and removed.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Please allow me to introduce the argument for empathy - for white males - Glenn Greenwald on Charles Krauthammer (see also CAC's analysis of the Ricci case):

[T]his column today from Charles Krauthammer [presents] (a) the right-wing argument that empathy and political opinions have no place in judicial decision-making and (b) the right-wing argument that Sotomayor wrongly decided the Ricci "firefighters" case because what happened to Frank Ricci was terribly unfair and because affirmative action is a bad policy.

[MORE . . .]

How soon before Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn has to abjectly apologize to Rush for this:

One of the top Republicans in the Senate, John Cornyn, is repudiating recent comments by Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich which claimed that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is a racist. Cornyn, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told NPR's "All Things Considered":

"I think it's terrible... This is not the kind of tone any of us want to set when it comes to performing our constitutional responsibilities of advise and consent." Cornyn dismissed Limbaugh and Gingrich, adding: "Neither one of these men are elected Republican officials. I just don't think it's appropriate. I certainly don't endorse it. I think it's wrong."

I predict Cornyn will be forced to agree that Rush and Newt are right - Sotomayor IS a "racist." Rush and Newt know about such things. Listen to the interview here.

Speaking for me only

Ilya Somin and Erwin Chemerinsky discuss the role of "empathy" in judging. In a subsequent blog post, Somin describes the chasm between them:

I fear that to some extent Chemerinsky and I are talking past each other. I don't disagree with Chemerinsky's claims that conservative justices (like liberals) sometimes base decisions on empathy and on their political ideology, and that judicial reliance on empathy cannot be completely eliminated. . . . Rather, my view is that reliance on empathy is a negative rather than a positive - whether practiced by conservative judges or liberal ones. . . . Ultimately, I think the real issue is not whether conservative and liberal judges sometimes rely on empathy (they both obviously do), but whether we should strive to reduce such reliance or increase it.

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