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THE FOUNDATION

"Judges, therefore, should be always men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness, and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests; they should not be dependent upon any man, or body of men." --John Adams

INSIGHT

"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force." --author Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

"The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded." --French political philosopher C. L. De Montesquieu (1689-1755)

"The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an empty head than the most superficial declamation; as a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a vacuum." --English cleric and writer Charles Colton (1780-1832)

Judge Sotomayor descends from on high to bestow "empathy" upon us

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

"In making Sonia Sotomayor his first nominee for the Supreme Court yesterday, President Obama appears to have found the ideal match for his view that personal experience and cultural identity are the better part of judicial wisdom. This isn't a jurisprudence that the Founders would recognize, but it is the creative view that has dominated the law schools since the 1970s and from which both the President and Judge Sotomayor emerged. In the President's now-famous word, judging should be shaped by 'empathy' as much or more than by reason. In this sense, Judge Sotomayor would be a thoroughly modern Justice, one for whom the law is a voyage of personal identity. 'Experience being tested by obstacles and barriers, by hardship and misfortune; experience insisting, persisting, and ultimately overcoming those barriers,' Mr. Obama said yesterday in introducing Ms. Sotomayor. 'It is experience that can give a person a common touch of compassion; an understanding of how the world works and how ordinary people live. And that is why it is a necessary ingredient in the kind of Justice we need on the Supreme Court.' ...[Sotomayor] is a judge steeped in the legal school of identity politics. This is not the same as taking justifiable pride in being the first Puerto Rican-American nominated to the Court, as both she and the President did yesterday. ... Judge Sotomayor's belief is that a 'Latina woman' is by definition a superior judge to a 'white male' because she has had more 'richness' in her struggle. The danger inherent in this judicial view is that the law isn't what the Constitution says but whatever the judge in the 'richness' of her experience comes to believe it should be. ... As the first nominee of a popular President and with 59 Democrats in the Senate, Judge Sotomayor is likely to be confirmed barring some major blunder. But Republicans can use the process as a teaching moment, not to tear down Ms. Sotomayor on personal issues the way the left tried with Justices Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito, but to educate Americans about the proper role of the judiciary and to explore whether Judge Sotomayor's Constitutional principles are as free-form as they seem from her record." --The Wall Street Journal

UPRIGHT

"Like conventional liberals, [Sonia Sotomayor] embraces identity politics, including the idea of categorical representation: A person is what his or her race, ethnicity, gender or sexual preference is, and members of a particular category can be represented -- understood, empathized with -- only by persons of the same identity." --columnist George Will

"Why make this complicated? President Obama prefers Supreme Court justices who will violate their oath of office. And he hopes Sonia Sotomayor is the right Hispanic woman for the job." --columnist Jonah Goldberg

"Since when did securing a Supreme Court seat become a high hurdles contest? The White House and Democrats have turned Second Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination into a personal Olympic event. Pay no attention to her jurisprudence. She grew up in a Bronx public housing project. She was diagnosed with childhood diabetes at 8. Her father died a year later. And, oh, by the way, did you hear that she was poor? It's a 'compelling personal story,' as we heard 20,956 times on Tuesday." --columnist Michelle Malkin

"If you were going to have open heart surgery, would you want to be operated on by a surgeon who was chosen because he had to struggle to get where he is or by the best surgeon you could find-- even if he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and had every advantage that money and social position could offer?" --economist Thomas Sowell

"Sotomayor believes that law, like beauty, is entirely in the eye of the beholder. It is therefore of vital importance which beholders are sitting on the Supreme Court. Judicial philosophy is irrelevant, in this view; the only true judicial philosophy is personal philosophy." --columnist Ben Shapiro

"Senate Republicans must take a stand and vocally oppose this nomination, not on the basis of partisan politics, but in defense of the rule of law and the proper role of the judiciary, principles the president is only pretending to honor." --columnist David Limbaugh

DEZINFORMATSIA

Untruth in labeling: "Based on her long paper trail, Sonia Sotomayor will be a moderate liberal, like Ginsburg and Breyer." --CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin

Non sequitur: "Despite her remarkable personal odyssey, Judge Sotomayor is already being called a liberal activist by some conservative groups." --NBC's Pete Williams

Straw man: "Certainly the attack on Sotomayor, to the extend that it is based on her race, to the extent that the attacks on her are based on the idea that she was an affirmative action choice -- I think that's probably the weakest ammunition they're going to have against her." --MSNBC's Rachel Maddow **That's fine since no conservative is actually using that argument.

From the sycophants: "Well, I thought it was a brilliant piece of work today, the way [the administration] brought [Sotomayor] out. I thought that biography of her, the way it was presented -- my own view -- was it couldn't have been done any better. We now know so much more about this nominee than we've ever known about any nominee in the past and we know it all in one day. ...He wowed us!" --MSNBC's Chris Matthews

Non Compos Mentis: "What's the problem here? ... We have terrorists in U.S. prisons, so why not the guys from Guantanamo?" --ABC anchor Charles Gibson

Another straw man: "The president said opponents of closing Guantanamo Bay are using the politics of fear and he promised it will be closed." --CBS's Chip Reid

They still hate Cheney: "Which reality do you inhabit, Obama World or Cheney World? If it's the latter, remember that storm clouds are always gathering. Don't forget your umbrella. In Obama World, it's always morning. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and the pollen count is low. In Cheney World, it's perpetual twilight." --Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson

Newspulper Headlines:

We Blame President Obama: "Omaha Man Blames Casino Drinks, Drugs for Big Debt" --Associated Press

Teleprompter Still Has Top Billing: "Facsimile Constitution Gets Starring Role in Presidential Speech" --ABCNews.com

Steel Would Be More Durable: "Venezuela Set to Build First Oil Rig With China: Report" --Agence France-Presse

That's Some Fine Detective Work: "Shooting Spree Endangered Neighborhood Residents, Police Say" --Star Press (Muncie, IN)

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "LIZ PEEK: Danger -- Our Government Is Set to Explode" --FoxNews.com

News You Can Use: "Tax Audits Are No Laughing Matter" --The Wall Street Journal

Bottom Stories of the Day: "Dem's Budget Raises Taxes, Slashes Services" --KATU-TV Web site (Portland, OR) ++ "Obama Blames Bush" --The Weekly Standard Web site

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto)

THE DEMO-GOGUES

Wrong qualities in a judge: "You have to be able to stand in somebody else's shoes and see through their eyes and get a sense of how the law might work or not work in practical day-to-day living." --Barack Obama on his Supreme Court pick, Sonia Sotomayor

"I said earlier that I thought empathy was an important quality [in a judge] and I continue to believe that. You have to have not only the intellect to be able to effectively apply the law to cases before you, but you have to be able to stand in somebody else's shoes and see through their eyes and get a sense of how the law might work or not work in practical day-to-day living." --Barack Obama

What is American?: "I think [Sonia Sotomayor] does have a richly, uniquely American experience that makes her incredibly qualified, uh, to pass judgment on some of the most important cases in our country. ... That is an experience that is new to the Court." --Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) **"Hey, Claire McCaskill: Meet Clarence Thomas" --Michelle Malkin

Socialism bankrupts America: "We are out of money now. ...We had to spend a lot of money to salvage our financial system, we had to deal with the auto companies, a huge recession which drains tax revenue at the same time it's putting more pressure on governments to provide unemployment insurance or make sure that food stamps are available for people who have been laid off." --Barack Obama

Yeah, right: "We want to get out of the business of helping auto companies as quickly as we can. I have got more than enough to do without that." --Barack Obama

Apparently, the administration doesn't have enough to do: "I think we can change people's behavior. ...We want to really ... [be] creating opportunities for what we call livable communities. ... It is a way to coerce people out of their cars. ... About everything we do around here is government intrusion in people's lives." --Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood, who also said he wants to "coerce people out of their cars"

VILLAGE IDIOTS

Liberal judicial philosophy 101: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." --Judge Sonia Sotomayor in 2001 **"Imagine the reaction if someone had unearthed in 2005 a speech in which then-Judge Samuel Alito had asserted, for example: 'I would hope that a white male with the richness of his traditional American values would reach a better conclusion than a Latina woman who hasn't lived that life' -- and had proceeded to speak of 'inherent physiological or cultural differences.'" --columnist Stuart Taylor

"Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging." --Sotomayor in 2001

It shouldn't be: "A court of appeals is where policy is made." --Sotomayor in 2005

More global warmism: "If there is no cost to be paid for the indiscriminate dumping of pollution into the earth's atmosphere, then it should be a surprise to no one that today we will dump another 70 million tons of global warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet. ... We have to [act] this year, not next year. Mother Nature does not do bailouts." --Al Gore

Speak for yourself: "It's interesting because I think in America, we think of the Buddhists especially, but also the Hindus as much more spiritual than we are, people who wouldn't engage in atrocities and things like that. Not really the case, is it?" --HBO's Bill Maher

From the "moderates": "What [Republicans] have to do is debate and define who we are and what we are and not just listen to diktats that come down from the right wing of the party." --former Secretary of State Colin Powell, making the mistake of thinking the GOP has gone further right

SHORT CUTS

"Brace yourself. Take a Dramamine. You'll be hearing about Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor ad nauseam in the coming weeks. Did I say 'Sonia Sotomayor'? I meant, of course, 'Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic nominee to the Supreme Court.' It will be a constantly recurring epithet, like 'swift-footed Achilles,' 'gray-eyed Athena,' or (perhaps more to the point) 'honest Iago.'" --columnist Roger Kimball

"Drinking game: If you take a shot every time you hear the phrase 'compelling life story' [about Sonia Sotomayor] today, you should be out by lunch." --columnist Michelle Malkin

"If a conservative judge decided the Constitution meant only what he or she says it means, there would be an outcry reaching to Heaven, if the secular Left believed in such a place." --columnist Cal Thomas

"In his Naval Academy commencement speech, Obama bragged about shooting the Somali pirates in those 'five days in April.' I hear a movie coming: 'Five Days in April -- How a courageous, brave, historic president of the United States personally wiped out three Somali teenagers.'" --radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh

Jay Leno:

President Obama has found a way to quickly close Guantanamo Bay. He's going to turn it into a Pontiac dealership.

Before she left for China, reporters repeatedly questioned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about her claim the CIA lied to her. But Pelosi remained tight-lipped. She also remained tight-foreheaded and tight-eyelided.

In fact, before she left, Pelosi told the press she's not going to have any further comments on this whole controversy about the CIA. She says no more talking. She's not going to say another word. Why can't we get this deal for Joe Biden?

Pelosi said that the CIA misleads us all the time. You know, unlike Congress.

The big story is the Supreme Court. President Obama has found his nominee. She is Federal Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor. A Latino woman. You know what that means -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg will no longer be the hot chick on the court.

*****

Veritas vos Liberabit -- Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot's editors and staff.

(Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families -- especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)