"I find the reliance on old racial and gender stereotypes, when it comes to debating the Sotomayor pick, extremely depressing"......... to insinuate she's merely an affirmative action pick is wrong and repellent." .... It's strange you don't find it "wrong and repellent" when you play the race card yourself. I guess it's just 'everyone else' that are the racists in your mind. I wonder where the Repubs. got this idea from? Maybe because in every breath the media is falling all over themselves, celebrating the fact she's a Latino and a woman. Why does this somehow make her more qualified than anyone else? If it's not being taken into consideration then why make the big deal out of her race and gender? What a convoluted hypocrisy, .....Now, if we could only find a deaf and blind Amerasienlatinoafricanamerican in a wheelchair, that grew up in south L.A. for the next nominee; we can sit back and watch the media have a collective orgasm........... Or maybe we can find someone that can simply interpret the the law in a fair and equitable manner; someone that doesn't bring racial preferences to the table. And leave the race and gender issues where they belong; out of the debate.. ...............Naa; that might make actual sense; we can't have that...

Joemommasan: "If clowns like you were even slightly interested in actual fairness, we wouldn't have needed affirmative action in the first place.".........................Yeah you're right; I guess that's why we decided to address the basic unfairness of racism with the institutionalized, government backed unfairness of affirmitive action.......BTW when is that program due to expire; or would it be unfair of me to ask?

Actually, there's no such thing as "reverse" racism. Just plain old 'racism' that stretches across all ethnic bounderies, and not just for "people of color"; another moronic PC misnomer. .... BTW; I tan quite well during the summer, so I guess that makes me a person of multicolor..

George Tenet has already said doctors monitored the waterboarding, so what's the story here? There no "secret".

Three people were waterboarded; three!....Try to get a perspective!..... Al Jazeera just photographs the beheadings and kinda' holds off on the medical intervention. Go figure... How about directing a little of this hand wringing sanctimony towards them..

I think those poor bastards that died in concentration camps might disagree with you. I'd bet they'd have welcomed a little waterboarding if it meant LIVING... But the very fact that they're DEAD might preclude their input on this subject. Now who's engaging in 'moral relativism? .....Then you say; "you do nothing to change the fact of your acceptance, approval, even promotion, of the use of terrorism in the form of systematic abuse and torture to achieve your ends." ...... I don't know what post you read, but nowhere did I indicate I approved or promoted the methods; I merely said "get a perspective'. The 'perspective' being, that as far as we know; three people were waterboarded; investigations were undertaken and concluded; and we no longer do it....It's over....Evidently your 'perspective' is that we waterboarded alot more than we're admitting too, but of course you have no real proof, just an idealogical feeling, based on a 'hunch'. And I need to get a perspective? LOL... Do you get this exorcised about abortion, or are the numbers there just too high for you to be concerned with? How about the number of American soldiers that die every day; no problem there either? That's just off the radar, right?

To repeat: my 'perspective' is; no one has died here. Seems in your world, dying from an act of terrorism equates to the 'horrors' of waterboarding......A bit of a stretch, I think.

Yes, I've read the links and the assumptions made, but assumptions without proof are just that 'assumptions'. Glen Greenwald posted a story claiming "dozens have died inn US custody" according to an Army Colonel. Turns out the link he supplied quoted this person as saying "probably a hundred have died". But again; he had no actual proof of crimes taking place; just speculation. I guess that's enough for some folks; you know, the real 'critical thinkers' who's political ideology prevents them from forming an objective opinion. The same rodents that then trot out the personal attacks when someone has the temerity to disagree with them.

But lets stay on topic here; we were referring to waterboarding, and no one in the mainstream media has reported anyone dying from it. So, I don't know what you've "heard', while you were trolling the blogosphere; but I'm sure MSNBC and CNN would be running the headlines 24/7 if any of the allegations and rumors were provable........Come to think of it: I've 'heard' we never actually landed on the moon either; is that 'true' in your world also?.......

........."The response could very easily have read "a savvy Pacific Islander man" or "a street-smart Middle-Eastern dude" or "a know-it-all Native American person", etc. A 12 year old could figure that out.".............Hmmm; no white guy in there?.............The problem here is, the overall assumption that a minority's 'life experience'; whatever that drivel means; is somehow more of a Supreme Court qualifier than the average white person. That in of itself, is a racist assumption, especially given the notion we claim to be above giving preferencial treatment to people of color. I guess the 'level playing field' is leaning a little to the left.. .....Not to mention the verbal parsing now underway to prove she meant something other than what she actually said.....I personally think she'll be fine on the Supreme court. Her record seems to indicate she's more than qualified. I just don't care for the hypocrisy of the holier-than-thou that would skewer the white guy without a second thought, for the same remarks....