Introducing your next Supreme Court Justice: Sonia "Chainsaw" Sotomayor

As compelling & improbable a story that of Sonia Sotomayor’s may seem, it may not be enough to fend off what is likely to be an extended and intense scrutinization of her beliefs and judicial style from Conservatives and Democrats alike.
As was expected, President Barrack Obama elected to go with the frontrunner as his choice to replace retiring Justice Souter. On the surface, the Obama administration and many of her supporters are going to try and sell her as someone who overcame tremendous adversity as a Latin woman raised alone by her mom in the South Bronx. They are going to sell her as the most experienced amongst all of the current sitting Judges, they are going to sell you on her intellect, her empathy and background.
If you are of Puerto Rican heritage, this is a proud moment. Sonia Sotomayor may become the first Latin woman to sit on the highest court in the land. But this nomination should not be about one group of people or a culture. This is not about rich or poor nor black or white, well to do or weak. This nominee should be about being able to rule based on the law of the land. It should not be about being fair & empathetic to the needs of certain groups or classes.
With this pick, Obama has in essence chosen someone who in his own words, should show empathy. In other words, Obama is expecting this nominee to be an activist judge who will help move along his left leaning agenda. And with Sonia Sotomayor’s pick, he will definitely not be disappointed. And with a Democratic majority in the Senate &, barring any major setback during confirmation hearings, she will be appointed. Yes, even if she owes back taxes...
In essence, with this pick, the Obama administration is also daring the Republican Party to go ahead and discredit Sonia Sotomayor. They are daring the Republicans to risk losing more of the Latino & woman vote by going against and demonizing Sonia Sotomayor.With this pick, the Obama administration will also temporarily soothe the hurt feelings of the Immigration Reform wing of the party who have taken a back seat to HealthCare & the Economic recovery. The Democrats know that this is a slam dunk. Yet despite all the praises that she has been given by the administration and colleagues, there are many who have expressed concerns about her temperament & intellect.

Jeffrey Rosen, editor of the New Republic expresses these concerns in his column:

“They expressed questions about her temperament, her judicial craftsmanship, and most of all, her ability to provide an intellectual counterweight to the conservative justices, as well as a clear liberal alternative. “
The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer was "not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench," as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. "She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren't penetrating and don't get to the heart of the issue." (During one argument, an elderly judicial colleague is said to have leaned over and said, "Will you please stop talking and let them talk?") Second Circuit judge Jose Cabranes, who would later become her colleague, put this point more charitably in a 1995 interview with The New York Times: "She is not intimidated or overwhelmed by the eminence or power or prestige of any party, or indeed of the media."

But none of these flaws matter. What matters is her predisposition to being an activist judge and being empathetic to those who in her eyes are underprivileged, poor, of color, and disadvantaged in other ways. She has gone on record as saying that she believes that a wise Latina woman might make better judicial decisions than a white man. A troubling statement to many Conservatives that say that this goes against the idea of Color blind justice. Some have called this reverse racism. She is sure to get grilled on this and other comments where she has openly stated that the Court of Appeals is where policy is made….
No doubt, she will have to explain many of these opinions and comments. The American people need to be assured that Sonia Sotomayor will rule & judge based on the Constitution and not in some political or activist fashion. Conservatives and Democrats alike must ask probing questions and get satisfactory explanations and guarantees that she will indeed follow and interpret the law of the land and not the law of Obama.. This is a very critical appointment and one that will be a lifetime appointment. It is imperative that now more than ever our elected leaders in Congress & the Senate perform due diligence and in their questioning of Sonia Sotomayor. The mainstream media as usual, will not do their homework on this nomination and once again fail to educate and inform the public . It is therefore up to each and everyone one of us to call our representatives in Washington and insist that they ensure that this Supreme Court nominee goes under oath and promise to interpret the Constitution and avoid any semblance of activism. This is not a time to be intimidated by Liberals or a fawning media of consequences that the grilling of the first Latin woman nominated to the Supreme Court will bring about in the Hispanic community. This is a time to stand up & challenge this nominee on her moral values, beliefs, judging style and personal agenda. I don't want to hear from Al Sharpton, Chuck Schumer, La Raza, Telemundo, Jesse Jackson or any one peddling racial discrimination. Ms. Sotomayor should be held to the same level of scrutiny that previous nominees have endured. This nomination should not be rubber-stamped and in my opinion should be questioned to the highest level.

Beware of Lame Street Media

Let’s face it, you are going to find many people amongst those that voted for Obama that are going to believe everything reported by the Lame street media. These outlets, in particular NBC, MSNBC, CBS ABC, Newsweek, Time and a host of others, are taking advantage of this and have in a lot of instances been derelict in reporting and educating the American people. After all, shouldn’t it be their job to report the news? Shouldn’t it be their job to keep the electorate and all citizens well informed about the goings on with our government leaders and to ask probing questions when necessary?
I cannot recall another time in our history when the media has been in the tank for an administration and have been so blatant about it. They have gone out of their way to give more passes to this Presidency than Peyton Manning throwing 15 yard outs to Plaxico Burris. It is akin to a 16 year old high school girl with an infatuation with the nerdiest guy in the school. No matter how many of her friends point out all the flaws the poor guy has, she will make the case that he is Mr. Right
The shame of it all is that most Americans who tune in are being misled and misguided by these media imposters. Everyone from Keith “My greatest claim to fame was that my mother was hit in the head by a throw from Derek Jeter” Olberman to Rachel “The Tea bagger” Maddow and Chris “I hate Woman” Matthews is in the tank and obviously covering and putting a positive spin on every goof & gaffe that comes out of the mouth of Nancy Pelosi, Joe ‘Plugs” Biden or anyone else in Obama land.
Take the host of MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olberman, who stood silently as his guest Jeanine Garafolo called everyone who attended Tea Parties on April 15th a racist. Not a word from little Keith about her choice of words or facts to support her claim.
These actions and attitudes expressed by the Left Leaning Lame Media are just part of a Major cover-up and propagandist campaign to enable and put a positive spin on Obama Care & Cap & Trade. Two of the costliest proposals to an already massive budget that has many economists and members of Congress scratching their heads to try and understand how can it be possible to ask Americans once again to fund something that may not benefit them. While these massive spending proposals will ensure that many Americans remain below the poverty line, it will also guarantee that at least one giant corporation cashes in with Billions of dollars worth of government contracts.
Well, you may ask yourself, why would MSNBC or NBC care about who winds up with your tax dollars? The reason is simple. MSNBC & NBC are owned by General Electric. General Electric is salivating and foaming at the mouth at the potential windfall that will be created if Obama Care & Global Warming legislation passes. General Electric is looking to get in on the Solar and Wind power markets if and when Cap & Trade is passed. They will also stand to benefit from the automation of medical records once Obama care is passed. They have invested heavily in these technologies and are ready to cash in. So it is no surprise that when hosts on any one of CNBC ‘s Financial shows criticize Obama’s agenda, they are quickly excoriated or scolded by top brass at NBC. Jeffrey Imelt being the Tony Soprano of GE delivering the fish heads. It is unscrupulous, corrupt and in my opinion as big a cover-up as Watergate.
Therefore, what are we as honest and hard working Americans supposed to do while the biggest transfer of wealth and heist of American tax dollars is taking place right before our eyes?
If you care about this country and the future it holds for your kids and grandkids & if you prefer to keep more of your hard earned money instead of having it go towards lining the pockets of people like Al Gore and all his Global Warming cronies – then get on the phone and contact your state representatives and Senators and let them know that you want clear answers about Health care reform & Cap & Trade before it is passed.
You should not place all your trust on the Lame street media when looking to cull probing information on these initiatives. It is up to every one of us to hold the media and our government responsible for providing accurate and unbiased information.

Nancy Insults our Intelligence

It is no secret that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been in full cover-up mode ever since the Water boarding controversy became headline news. As has been reported by many Media outlets including the left leaning NY Times and corroborated by many of her colleagues, Nancy the ranking Democrat on the House Intellingence Committee at the time, was briefed by the Bush administration and was well aware of Waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques as far back as September 2002. For almost seven years not once did she cry foul to anyone about these so called torture tactics. Not once did she say,” I do not approve of this and I want to go on record with this stand”. For seven years following the 9/11 terror attacks on NYC, she did not have a reason to complain because the very same so called torture tactics used to counter subsequent attacks and cull useful information that deterred future attacks, kept her, her constituents and millions of Americans safe. By keeping silent about her Water boarding briefings, she in essence created a rift with the far Left wing of her party who staunchly & unapologetically oppose any type of torture under any circumstance. She cannot seem to reconcile this faux pas and is therefore in full denial mode. The same type of denial that led our President Barrack Obama to deny ever hearing Reverend Wright bad mouth the US from his pulpit even though he attended and sat in his church for 20 years. As incredulous as this seems, these are the types of outright lies that makes us dislike Politicians so much. It is an insult to our intelligence.
Instead, we have another self centered Politician scrambling to save their hide and political career. We have a biased media who for the most part has not pressed her on this issue. Instead, they have left her to dictate to them what gets reported and who should be painted as the bad guy in all of this. Why can’t Nancy Pelosi just woman up and say, “you know what, for the sake of keeping us safe in a time of war, I thought we needed to use all sources and methods of information gathering. I felt it was my duty as an American to keep this information secret until the appropriate time”. I’d probably respected her a great deal for taking on that stance and sticking it to the far left for once. Unfortunately, she has decided to take the same stance that our President has wrongly supported - and that is to lay the blame on those who at the time provided opinions which stated that Waterboarding was within the legal confines of Interrogation techniques. She has chosen to diminish all the good faith and morale built up over the last 7 years from the CIA. She is now on board with the idea of parading around all the lawyers for the CIA & DOJ that gave opinions and provided legal standing for the use of Water boarding and other advanced interrogation techniques and turning this into some big dog and pony show. In the best of interest of our national security, she should just have shut her mouth or simply stated the truth. Predictably, she has chosen to lie.
I would suggest that if she is so adamant about her recollection of the briefings she received in 2002, that she submit herself to and be Water boarded in an attempt to extract any additional information. If it is true what she is saying, then Water boarding should not provide any additional information. Maybe this can be televised on MSNBC. We can have Keith Olberman on one side, Chris Matthews on the other, and Rachel Maddow applying the Water. Now this may be something that many Americans would not mind tuning in to MSNBC for..

Health Care Reform = Lower quality service for millions.

Now that all the hoopla and excitement over another President reaching the 100 day milestone in the White House is over, Americans better brace themselves for the seismic shifts in Domestic & Foreign Policy that will transform this country from a vibrant Free Market Based economy into a European Style Socialistic Nanny State. One of the first orders of business will be to reform Health Care and give Washington the upper hand in providing low quality health care to millions of Americans. While on the surface the Social & Humanitarian aspect t of providing Health care to those that are currently uninsured (estimated 46 million) is commendable, even if you are here illegally - the truth is that only about half of those 46 million uninsured will be covered under some version of Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) or the new National Health Insurance Plan. Millions of Americans who now have Private Health Insurance will also find themselves in these programs whether they want to be in them or not.. Yet while Barrack Obama may insist that any New Government run Health plan will compete with Private Plans, the insistence on increasing Medicaid enrollment is just not going to make this possible.In other words, don’t expect high quality care from any of these Government run Health care plans whether it be Medicaid or National Health Care.

INCREASED ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE WILL MEAN LOW QUALITY..

Pushing more people into the Medicaid rolls will not translate into Doctors incorporating the overflow of Medicaid recipients into their practices..For years Doctors have been accepting fewer & fewer of these patients because of the low reimbursement rates and all the red-tape that is inherent in these government run programs…Medicaid pays on average only 56% of the cost of medical services provided by these physicians. Waiting to receive their reimbursements can mean waiting anywhere from 37 days to as high as 115 days if you practice medicine in Pennsylvania. Stands to reason then that if Doctors are accepting fewer Medicaid patients but yet the Government insists on increasing enrollment in Medicaid, that this will lead to reduced care for all Medicaid Beneficiaries..

CANCER & CARDIAC CARE

Another reason for concern is the fact that Medicaid Patients commonly receive substandard care as opposed to those covered by Private Health Insurance. This is particularly evident in the areas of Cancer & Cardiac care. Researchers found that Medicaid patients who suf­fered a heart attack were significantly less likely than patients with other forms of insurance to receive a number of important clinical interventions includ­ing cardiac catheterization, percutaneous trans­luminal coronary angioplasty, and revascularization procedures. The authors of the study strongly suggested that the financial disincen­tives of caring for Medicaid patients contributed to the gap in the quality of treatment. Other studies have found a similar disparity in the use of invasive procedures between cardiac patients in Medicaid and those with other types of insurance.
According to a recent study in the Journal Cancer, researchers found that Medicaid patients who were diagnosed with breast, colorectal, or lung cancer had a two-to-three-times greater risk of dying from their disease than patients with other types of insurance. This disparity in outcomes was apparent whether the patients were enrolled in Medicaid before or after their diagnosis of cancer and held up even after controlling for other factors, such as site and stage of the cancer and the gender of the patient.
While some of these failures within the program are ignored by Washington, it is also a fact that Medicaid patients are less likely to be treated by Board certified doctors than those with private insurance. Overall, it is safe to say that while an expansion of health coverage for millions will be portrayed as a noble and just cause by the Biased Mainstream Media, it will in no way guarantee any improvement in the level of service or health status as indicated by a study conducted of low-income Medicaid recipients from 1989-1995..
At a time when this economy is shedding jobs at the rate of 600K a month and Americans are losing their employer based health insurance coverage , this will only add to the uninsured number and will continue to increase the Medicaid & SCHIP rolls. For every 1 point increase in the unemployment rate, it is estimated that 1 million Americans will receive Medicaid for their coverage and an additional 1.1 million will become uninsured. While I agree that Federal and state policymakers need to get serious and address not only the problem of the uninsured, but also how to extend access to quality health care to all Americans. President Obama's proposal would rely on a Medicaid expansion, as well as the creation of a new, as yet unspecified, "gov­ernment-run health care plan" that would compete with private health plans. This policy prescription is both insufficient and counterproductive.

PLAN WILL REQUIRE MASSIVE & INCREASED GVT. SPENDING

For the amount of money that taxpayers will have to dish out over the next 10 years to run this program, I would think that Washington should be offering a stout health plan similar to the ones that our Senators & Congressman receive. Estimates have the government spending about 450 billion a year and about 6 trillion dollars from 2010-2019. The Obama administration will argue that this plan will in fact realize a savings during this same 10 year period if certain events occur. Events such as physicians' being willing to adopt health IT, consumers being willing to accept changes in diet and exercise. … Obama discounts that there is little evidence that there are known methods to cause the "if only' behavior to occur, and to occur quickly on a large enough scale to matter.
This monstrous & massive overhaul of our health care system will inevitably just become another gift from President Obama to Washington Insiders and in the end leave most Americans with even less control of their health care dollars than they do today. Don't take it from me, listen to this report on Canada's National Health care system which is similiar to the model that the US will implement once legislation is passed.

Thanks to Jeet Guram & John S. O'shea M.D. & The Heritage Foundation for some of the contributions and research used in this report.