Live from the Egypt Protests

Al Jazeera shows the world the meaning of democracy, as Donald Rumsfeld hits the airwaves complaining the Obama administration is "afraid to say the word 'Islamist.'" [Walsh, Salon]

Fear now, say Rumsfeld, Beck and Limbaugh.

Democracy now, say the 'Islamists.'

Stephen Colbert puts things into their absurd perspective, [via Crooks and Liars]:

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Sotomayor Critics Do Not Dissapoint

The attacks against Judge Sonia Sotomayor are more fun than progressives anticipated.

Fun because the predictable impotence and incoherence of the anti-Sotomayor campaign could not have been better formulated by Democratic political operatives hoping to consolidate the growing political power of Hispanics and women.

Here we have a Hispanic woman living the American dream and all the rightwing can do is engage in hysterical, uninformed commentary and personal smears.

Making the rounds is Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, who is upset that "Sotomayor has admitted that she views the role of a judge as an activist who makes policy decisions."

Is Lafferty suggesting that the top appellate court renounce its role for judicial review and halt judicial policymaking applying constitutional and statutory analysis to given situations in American society?

These guys are whack.

See also Joan Walsh on The vicious attacks on Sotomayor.

Maybe if the Roberts court guts the Civil Rights Act and Congressional authority in the coming days [see There They Go Again], Lafferty will be right there to blast these damn policy deciders.

Idiot Wind

Via Joan Walsh at Salon: Very fun times as Jon Stewert and Robert Reich take down "CNBC's Rick Santelli's faux-populist anti-Obama rant (and) mad man Jim Cramer's slurring Obama as a 'Bolshevik.' They're both repellent. Robert Reich says it all here."

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Bush and Falk

Listening to Bush last night [Bush's goodbye is a festival of self-pity and delusion] is
like listening to Kathleen Falk defend her administration' 911 center work during the murder of Brittany Zimmermann.

Bush and Falk both did well on their own scorecards.

Rev Wright Isn’t Running for President

Update: Obama Says He’s Outraged by Ex-Pastor’s Comments

via mal contends - The Rev. Wright has offended a lot of people lately—including liberal commentators.

Rev. Wright, who made a series of interviews/addresses the past week, has “devolved into self-pity and self-glorification (Walsh),” has been “inflating his importance in a pride-goeth-before-the-fall kind of way, (Robinson), is ”living a narcissist’s dream” (Herbert),” and so on.

It’s worth noting then that whatever one believes of the ex-Marine’s oratory, Rev. Wright is not running for president and absolutely nothing has been presented to suggest that Obama is/has been/will be carrying on Wright’s views in any policy.

That’s likely because Wright has not made any policy pronouncements.

He just likes to spout off at what makes him angry; maybe some talking heads like to do the same thing at times, maybe we do too. But Marines and black preachers can be a bit heavy-handed, unlike the judicious and thoughtful folks on cable TV.

John McCain and the corporate media love smearing Obama when a smear looks doable; and doubt persists about whether a black man like Obama can ever really love our country like a white man/woman can.

No doubt that McCain has never uttered an intemperate remark or said anything objectionable during his tenure in elected office, and McCain will be held to the same standard and scrutiny as Obama’s retired pastor by the muckraking American corporate media.

The American media do not exactly have a first-rate record when it comes to discussing matters of substance in presidential elections. This sad history ought to be the focus of liberal commentators.

But for now, even Salon is asking: What should Obama do about Rev. Jeremiah Wright? And not: What should Obama do about the inane corporate media and our vapid political culture.

Now is the time for Obama to make a major address on real needs of real people v. corporate media obsession on the inane. Regain control and make the foolish react to message of change and substance.