To say that Sotomayor is any worse than any other candidate is a conservative put-on in my humble opinion.

She is beyond qualified for the position and will serve her country well.

First off, the United states really carries the weight for the world, militarily. Japan doesn’t have much of a military-they can’t, constitutionally, although some want to change that-but they don’t have to, not with all the military bases we have there. Same with South Korea, most of Western Europe…We’re one of the only nations that has overseas military bases, and we spend such a huge amount of our federal budget on military expenses. If all those other nations had to provide for their defense by themselves, they’d find that they’d have to make some sacrifices, or else greatly raise taxes.

Second point: those other nations have smaller countries, and don’t face some of the issues (immigration, persistent poverty among minorities) that trouble the United States.

Third point: We currently have a 10% unemployment rate. Now, even in a boom time, there’s some degree of unemployment. Some people just can’t cut it, others are just between jobs, all sorts of reasons. But, subtract the unemployed, and then subtract the (at least) 10 million illegal immigrants in the nation, and all the people who could afford health care but choose not to have it (or are just irresponsible), and you have a lot fewer uninsured.

Fourth point: People are living too dang long, with too many ailments, that were formerly death sentences, that are now treatable, but expensive to to treat.

Fifth: Smoking, drinking, drug abuse, and obesity. If we tackled these issues, rather than wasting trillions making our health care system worse, we’d take a HUGE cut out of costs.

Sixth: Tort reform to lower costs

Seventh: It’d be better to give people back their tax money and say “go buy some insurance with it”.

Eighth: I admit that the insurance companies are crooks. My dad’s a lawyer, and he has to do a Robin Hood and make the rich insurance companies pay for what they said they’d pay for (but decided they don’t want to pay for) all the time. They need to be better regulated, made to pay for what they say they’ll pay for, forbidden from denying treatment because of pre-existing conditions, and should change their model of business from one that turns a profit by increasing premiums and denying people, to one that earns money by signing up as many people as possible, and by competing for people’s money by offering the best deal.

And finally: Medicaid is broke, Medicare too, Social Security is going to be broke, the Postal System sucks compared to UPS and FedEx, our schools are the laughing stock of the civilized world (LAUSD has a 50% dropout rate; California some of the lowest test scores in the nation; half our country can’t even find Canada on a map); and, whoever is in office, they lie to us and waste our money. You want to give them more money and more power over you? If anything, we should ban every person currently holding office-and anyone still alive who has held elected office-from politics for the remainder of their lives (and ditto for spouses and sons-I’m talking to you, families Bush and Clinton).

I’ll probably put all that in another editorial on health care soon. And with that, good night.

One point to Lunaire and Chris: I’m not a “Republican”. I have no loyalty to the GOP. I have no loyalty to conservatism. Personally, I think that Newt Gingrich, Cheney, Rove, Rush, and Michael Steele are as bad for this country as Pelosi, Reid, Obama, and company. I’m just attacking them because they are the ones in power.

The problem with American politics is that you have only two options. Now, because the GOP is the only thing big enough to stop the Democrats from destroying what was left of this country when Bush left office, I’m taking it easy on them. But, when they get in power, they’ll become just as destructive. Neither liberalism nor conservatism are the answers.

That said, I agree with more typically conservative stances than liberal ones, so, by most litmus tests (taxes, abortion, guns, government size), I’m conservative. But I ask those unfamiliar with my beliefs and writing to remember this: just because I hold some “conservative” positions on some issues does not mean that I am solidly conservative on all issues. What’s more, I am a “paleo-conservative”, not a neo-con, and, as such, I was opposed to the war in Iraq, and I oppose interventionist foreign policy, militarism, and globalization.

Chris, they are simply repeating exaggerated versions of comments made by people who *do* know her, and her own statements about benefitting from affirmative action. Those original observations and their current interpretation may well be unfair or false, but repeating them is hardly bigotry. The crass rhetorical opportunism typical in politics, yes; bigotry, no.

To say that solely due to her background, she will somehow usher in the absorption of the US into Mexico…

Where does Blaise say anything *close* to that?

but did you ever think that we might have legitimate reasons for not voting Republican? That maybe Republicans are talking at us and down on us instead of including us? … if Republicans actually listen to how we feel instead of dictating how we should feel…

You claim to have “legitimate reasons”, but all I see here is complaints about *feelings*.

Lunaire, Blaise is simply stating the very real tendency these days for finding strong constitutionalists vs. free intrepretationists falling along a right/left divide. A Republican would therefore be more likely to appoint a strong constitutionalist justice. I see nothing controversial about that.

1) It is not that opposing her is racist or sexist, it is the things that people say about her that are sexist or racist. When people say that she’s unintelligent and bitchy, which is what many a mainstream Republican has either said or implied, when she graduated suma cum laude at Princeton,and don’t know her personally is bigoted.

2) Geography lesson: Sonia Sotomayor is of Puerto Rican descent. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, with all Puerto Ricans having full US citizenship. To say that solely due to her background, she will somehow usher in the absorption of the US into Mexico is ludicrous, when it was Puerto Rico that was the absorbed one in the first place.

3) I can’t speak for all non-white people, but did you ever think that we might have legitimate reasons for not voting Republican? That maybe Republicans are talking at us and down on us instead of including us? And no, Michael Steele and Clarence Thomas don’t count. There are legitimate grievances that are too numerous to mention; maybe I’ll blog about it one day, who knows. But my point is, if Republicans actually listen to how we feel instead of dictating how we should feel, maybe some more of us would actually vote for u. Just saying.