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The Colbert Report
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* It's this awesome guy.

Be still my heart!

I think I'm in love (via o-dub)!

In her maiden Supreme Court appearance last week, Justice Sonia Sotomayor made a provocative comment that probed the foundations of corporate law.

During arguments in a campaign-finance case, the court's majority conservatives seemed persuaded that corporations have broad First Amendment rights and that recent precedents upholding limits on corporate political spending should be overruled.

But Justice Sotomayor suggested the majority might have it all wrong -- and that instead the court should reconsider the 19th century rulings that first afforded corporations the same rights flesh-and-blood people have.

Judges "created corporations as persons, gave birth to corporations as persons," she said. "There could be an argument made that that was the court's error to start with...[imbuing] a creature of state law with human characteristics."

I've maintained for years that decisions giving personhood to corporations have stripped the power from the people and put it in the hands of entities who just don't care about anything but the bottom line. Backing away from that can only be a good thing. I think this may be a very wise Latina.

Justice Sotomayor

I haven't been talking about politics much lately, but this is something that makes me very happy. Sonia Sotomayor was a great choice and I think she'll be quite the distinguished justice.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Lots of links you might have missed!

It's been a while and these things do pile up...

• How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck -- this is an interesting chart. We're by no means average (we've never carried a car loan, for one thing, and we probably spend more on food and alcohol, even though we don't eat out much), but the proportions seem to be generally true.

• Have you tried goofram yet? It's a combination of google and wolfram|alpha.

• Think you're a geek? Have you mastered the essential skills?

• The Young Republicans have elected an Aryan as their leader.

• Barney Frank visited the Daily Show last week.

• Just how rich is Fitzwilliam Darcy? (Here's an interesting bit of trivia: Pride and Prejudice is not only my favorite novel, it's also the first book I ever read aloud to Emmie -- starting when she was about a week old.) And speaking of Jane Austen, today is the anniversary of her death.

• How's your sense of pitch? (I scored a 26 out of 26 -- which, if you've ever heard me sing, you know must mean that I hear pitch perfectly -- I just can't produce it that way.)

• White Men Can't Judge.

• Local coverage of Zach Wamp's psooper psekret christian adultery cult (read about yet another C Street philanderer here -- and here!).

• You Suck at Craig's List is pretty funny (via Joe. My. God.).

• Badass of the Week, featuring Blenda, the Viking Heroine!

• Rick Perry is apparently rethinking that whole Texas-as-a-country thing (seriously -- who voted for this guy?).

• If you want to see the Great Barrier Reef, you better go soon.

• Can someone find Glenn Beck a nice small room with soft walls and a good therapist?

• ... and speaking of health care (that's what set Beck off)... Glenn doesn't have it quite right when it comes to France's system. The current American system is fine until you get sick, but will the next one be any better?

• This can't be said enough times: the only thing abstinence-only "education" produces is unbelievably stupid kids.

• I loves me some Usain Bolt footage. He makes all the other best runners in the world look like my grandma.

• Understanding our economy.

• Drunk people doing yoga.

• And finally, Pat Buchanan: he really stepped in it this week -- even more than usual!

Saturday Stuff You Might Have Missed

Here's a real hodgepodge from the past week!

• And you thought Episode I was bad? Check out an early draft of the original Star Wars.

• These two girls totally outdo Robert Loggia and Tom Hanks, but then again, they're not supposedly improvising.

• Things disappear! Like the Aral Sea and the Amazon Rainforest -- and beyond that, farms sink!

• Food from around the world: in hospitals and in schools (and speaking of school lunches, there's this too)!

• How much do we love to defend marriage?? Oh, so much that the fun overflowed from one video into another! Also, we like to mock Pat Robertson with beautiful music videos.

• In medical and curing blindness news, this is really awesome.

• Do you like to have pictures with your data? Something to make it seem less dry and less science-y? Then you're going to like these sites.

• Did you have a video made of your wedding? If so, it's going to seem so incredibly lame after you watch this one.

• Watch out, all you greedy, overbearing religious cult-like groups! Scientology has Scientologists have been banned, and those awful Mormons have been taken down another notch. Ha.

• Attention Ferris Fans! Cameron's home is for sale!

• And finally, some quotes for the week (we'll start with the icky and work our way to the more reasonable):

Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something, or just before she’s going to menstruate.

-- G. Gordon Liddy, troglodyte, doing an awfully good job of making the other neanderthals of his ilk look almost human by comparison. (Update: and there's always the problem of bears.)

Honestly folks. If we paid as much attention to the sexual activities of Catholic priests as we do to homosexuals wanting to marry, we probably could have saved a lot of children from years of guilt, shame, anger and pain.

-- Helen Philpot

Sonia Sotomayor

First of all, here's how to say it: Sonia Sotomayor (when you get there, click the play button to listen).

Did you know that Sonia Sotomayor will be the first Type 1 Diabetic to sit on the Supreme Court? Paige points us to some clarifying thoughts from Amy with regard to Sotomayor’s diabetes.

Here's some video of the nom if you missed it (along with some other tidbits from around the web).

Are Republicans circling to hit the iceberg again?

And finally, this is yet another good thing.

Dictionary Definition of Pandering

This story cracked me up so much I decided to give it its own post. It's a great illustration of how John McCain has become a pandering blockhead -- a maverick no more (unless you consider a maverick to be someone who will do or say anything to get elected). The really silly (scary?) thing here is the way he once again demonstrates that he has no memory of the past. But just because he can't find an on-ramp to the Internet doesn't mean the rest of us can't check on his record.

One of the questions in the Saddleback forum last night was which current Supreme Court Justice would not have nominated. McCain, predictably, in an effort to prove how conservative he really is, listed these four:

Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, Justice Souter, Justice Stevens.

But here is the funny part.

McCain voted to confirm three of them: Ginsburg, Breyer, and Souter.

And the only reason Stevens did not receive his vote was because Stevens was a Justice before McCain became a Senator.

It's too bad we don't have an intelligent, independent media to report on these kinds of things (well, when McCain does them, anyway -- the compliant press is all over every stupid little talking point the GOP puts out there about Obama).

48 Hours

MSNBC's Chuck Todd, in reacting to the news from the AP that Hillary Clinton will acknowledge that Barack Obama is the nominee tonight (a story that some Clinton insiders flatly contradict), says that the next 48 hours belong to Hillary Clinton. It will be a big victory for Obama tonight, but everyone will be watching Clinton.

Since the story keeps changing by the moment, it's hard to say what might happen, but I still think Todd is right about the next couple of days. She's run a hard-fought race and she deserves to enjoy her last few moments in the campaign spotlight and to go out on her own terms.

While we're waiting to find out how this will all play out, I'll share with you my suggestion for Hillary's next big career move...

I don't think she'd be a good vice-presidential candidate. I just can't see it -- Bill would be the 800-pound gorilla on the ticket, not really on the ticket, but constantly getting in the way and overshadowing the real candidates. But Hillary's a great Senator and a great campaigner, so I'd like to see her return to those jobs as soon as she's had a chance to catch her breath. She has a lot to contribute on Capitol Hill and I'd like to see her on the campaign trail, working to get Barack Obama, and other Democrats, elected.

Beyond the election, I'd love to see her as our next Supreme Court justice -- if the Democrats make enough gains in the Senate to get her confirmed, of course. This would be a twofer, as far as I'm concerned. First, she'd be a fantastic Justice -- she's an incredibly smart person with a willingness to dig deep into issues and really flesh out a debate. But the big bonus would be that the right wingnuts would go completely bonkers at the idea of a Clinton sitting on the Supreme Court for the rest of her life. We'd probably get to watch more than a few conservative heads explode in the aftermath. A great appointment and quality entertainment! You can't beat it!

Jenna's Wedding Day Links

Here's a bit of what's going on out there on the net this weekend!

• Check out the weather forecast in Crawford, TX. According to John McCain's chief spiritual advisor, John "America is Damned" Hagee, this clearly means that God hates the Bushes.
• Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens was in Chattanooga yesterday to speak at the 68th conference of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. Check out the comments he made regarding the use of lethal injections: [H]e suggested that the recently-euthanized Kentucky Derby horse Eight Bells had probably experienced a more humane death than those who die on death row. "I had checked the procedure they used to kill the horse," Justice Stevens said, expressing surprise to learn it is against the law in Kentucky to kill animals using one of the drugs in a three-drug lethal injection cocktail that many believe is cruel to humans.
• Now that he's staring down the barrel at his reelection prospects, Chattanooga's Mayor Littlefield apparently is having second thoughts about the drastic cuts he's made to the curbside recycling program.
• Jesus! vs Darwin!
• You gotta love those family values republicans. It seems as though every week, another one finds his way out from under his rock...
• Would you crash this poll?
• The columnists speak of the end of the primary season: Eugene Robinson and Paul Krugman on the divisions in the Democratic party
• Cindy Lou: show me the money!

SCOTUS, Harris, Rush's Drugs, & the Gore Movie

I'm sorry -- I'm in the process of moving (we've maybe found a place to live but if you own property in Chattanooga area and would like some roomies, let me know!), and don't have my usual time to surf the blogs when the big news bits hit the fan. This SCOTUS smackdown of Georgie is a juicy story, but I haven't been able to enjoy it like I should. AmericaBlog, Tennessee Guerilla Women and Kos (ha!) are on the case, though.

p.s. In case you're wondering about the increasingly deranged behavior of Katherine Harris, I don't think it has anything to do with Rush Limbaugh's drug/impotence problems. I suspect he's not the type to share his drugs, and it's not like Viagra could be responsible for the mental problems she's stuggling with anyway...

pp.s. If you're in Chattavegas and plan to be at Friday evening's 7:10 Bijou showing of An Inconvenient Truth, you'd better prepay because it's expected to sell out. And if you do manage to get tix, I'll see you there! Peaceout!

Antonin Scalia Unhinged?

Via John at AmericaBlog who observed, "the thought of flipping somebody off in church, minutes after receiving the Eucharist, is just, well, beyond shocking, insulting, infuriating." What is going on witih these people? First Cheney drops the f-bomb in the hallowed chambers of Congress, and now a U.S. Supreme Court Justice is giving people the finger at church?!?

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia startled reporters in Boston just minutes after attending a mass, by flipping a middle finger to his critics.

Scalito

I guess given that the right-wingnuts are so happy with this one, I should I go ahead and get fitted for my burka now?

What's his story? Theocracy, ho!
US News
American Constitution Society
WaPo
ThinkProgress
Free Republic
PFAW

Congrats, Chicago

Harry went down, the SOX are up -- what a news morning!

UPDATE: pink has faded to black.

Harriet Miers Has a Blog

Here ya go. The inaugural post:

OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M THE NOMINEE!!!

This is BIGGEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!

EVER!!!!

OMG OMG OMG

Harriet Miers?

Oh-Kay....

The White House bio.

The Mike Brown of the Supreme Court?

The freepers react (she gave $$ to Gore?).

According to Fundrace, she gave $2000 to Bush. Same with MoneyLine: $2000 in 2004, and a number of contributions to a variety of republicans in the 2000 election cycle. In the 1990's she was a loyal republican contributor. Open Secrets doesn't ping on her name at all. So, where's this giving to Gore thing come from?

Ah -- here it is. I didn't go back in time far enough.

Roberts Confirmation

Just for the record, every Republican voted for confirmation. The Democrats split, and Jeffords voted yes.

Democrats who voted in favor of confirmation: Baucus, Bingaman, Byrd, Carper, Conrad, Dodd, Dorgan, Feingold, Johnson, Kohl, Landrieu, Leahy, Levin, Lieberman, Lincoln, Murray, Nelson, Nelson, Pryor, Rockefeller, Salazar and Wyden.

Democrats who voted against confirmation: Akaka, Bayh, Biden, Boxer, Cantwell, Clinton, Corzine, Dayton, Durbin, Feinstein, Harkin, Inouye, Kennedy, Kerry, Lautenberg, Mikulski, Obama, Reed, Reid, Sarbanes, Schumer and Stabenow.

Roberts

He's a disappointing choice for a lot of reasons. But, determined to find something nice to say about the guy, I did a bit of digging and happily found something pretty quickly: he's a Buffalo Bills fan. :-)

U.S. Circuit Judge John Roberts Jr.

It looks to be an IN-YOUR-FACE! nomination. Quite the divisive choice.

Woof.

Now things are going to get really ugly:

Sandra Day O'Connor leaving Supreme Court.