Glenn wrote, "A similar avenue of certain attack -- that Sotomayor said in a 2001 speech that a female Latina judge has experiences that can inform her view of cases -- is equally frivolous."

If this all that Sotomayor had said during this speech, it would indeed be a completely frivolous avenue of attack. What Sotomayor also said, however, was "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." There is context, of course--her comments leading up to this were, indeed, roughly what Glenn was saying; she was arguing against the idea that two impartial judges would always reach the same conclusion, regarldess of gender, race, or personal history--obviously a silly notion. However, the troubling part is that she claimed a *superior* status by virtue of her gender, ethnicity, and "richness of experience," as though being Hispanic and having grown up in poverty in the Bronx inherently confers superior judicial powers. Imagine how it would sound reversed--"I would hope that a wise white male would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a Latina woman." Pretty bigoted and dumb, right? Right.

That said, although it's an annoying comment that reveals an annoying mindset, Glenn is correct to state that any real objections to this G.H.W. Bush-nominated justice must come in the form of pointing to "bad" (however you define "bad") decisions that she's made from the bench. Like 99.9% of Americans--including all of the ones pontificating about her left-wing extremism--I'd never heard of Sotomayor until about 3 weeks ago and have no grounds on which to actually object to her nomination, which I suspect will be relatively painless. However, that particular quote of hers is a very stupid one and does deserve to be castigated.

Suggesting that Pelosi should be included in any probe into torture isn't partisan rancor...it's exactly what the investigative process demands. "Partisan rancor" would be claiming that only Republicans should go down/go up the river for what happened.

"And now he's defying a court order to release photos that would further implicate Bush and company in criminal activity."

I'm extraordinarily dispapointed in Obama for this flip-flop, but he's not "defying a court order." He's instructing government laywers to object--in other words, going thorugh legal process. The process is towards an end I thoroughly disagree with, but he is not unilaterally "defying" an order.

I agree that sparing grieving mothers the specifics of their children's final moments are among the least destructive of the lies told by the U.S. military during the course of the Iraq business. That said, "It is possible that the two circumstances of death were momentarily confused during informal discussion before or after the briefing" is an almost comically pathetic example of an officer trying to avoid taking responsibility for a mistake. *He* didn't confuse the circumstances of death, of course--the circumstances *were* confused by mysterious and intransient actors.

Re: towed mortars being used by insurgents, it's entirely possible. The old Iraqi Army arsenals were raided by insurgents (or however you want to name them) during the fall of the regime, and mortar attacks on US bases are or used to be a daily occurance in Iraq. The countryside is large, humans (and even towed mortars) and what can be spotted by air or detected by radar at a given moment is limited.

Small error--the organization in question is called FAIR (al lcaps) Fund, not Fair Fun.

As for the criticisms, it's worth pointing out that at this point, teachers in the DC school system do not have adequate training/expertise to teach about sexual violence. The counter-counter argument that they *should* have such expertise is obvious. The task force does conduct teacher training as well, and its ultimate goal is towards a self-sustaining program that is fully integrated into the regular curriculum.

I predict that Parker will leave NRO within six months, and the Republican Party within a year. The GOP is entrenching into a party of nothing but evangelical Christians.