My two cents on the Sotomayor nomination: About what I expected. Pretty much a lateral trade for Souter. Not really going to set the world on fire as a judge, but she does a lot of other things for Obama. Personally, do I like her? No. I’m not a big fan of judicial activism or social engineering, not to mention that she seems terribly abrasive. But, Obama won. He gets to make the selection. If there is any deal-breaker out there we’ll no doubt hear about it soon. But righ now if I were a Senator I’d vote against her because of the activism, but I wouldn’t spend political capital on a filibuster.

Really, on Obama’s side of things this is a ho-hum pick. I think that how the GOP handles this will be interesting and show where the party is at in terms of learning, growing and being serious about earning back America’s trust.

I don’t like the early signs. All I’m hearing are two options: clam up because we have to “pick our battles,” or go all out and try to block the thing with a filibuster. As if black and white are the only choices. Here I was thinking that this might be a great spot to have a go at constructive, appropriate debate, and responsible behavior.

The attraction to Sotomayor and the media hoopla is rooted in her story and her demographic package. Any number of surveys make it clear that the public disapproves of her brand of legislating and correcting past social wrongs from the bench. Hmmm, like the person despite unfavorable policies. Sounds like a certain President I know.

So this would be a great opportunity for a few rounds of constructionist vs. activist debate. Sotomayor really is unremarkable as a nominee in this situation. This is about Obama and the Republicans. Her nomination just happens to be the device that brought it to the fore.

Of course with the administration and the media ready to brand any whiff of dissent as racism, this whole matter will require the GOP to communicate effictively and make their case. And it requires that the GOP stick to the elements of this debate that are their business – namely Sotomayor’s fitness to serve on the Supreme Court. Sorry, but unlike your media-aided Democratic colleagues, you can’t get away with opposing the nominee simply because you disagree with them politically.

So, the same old games won’t go here. Take the 60% reversal rate drumbeat for example. John debunked this at PowerLine this morning. That’s just the kind of thing that is no help in the long run. Sure it might be good for a quick “gotcha!” But eventually the whole story surfaces and there goes your credibility. Not to mention that it’s just plain lazy.

Sotomayor’s nomination is going through so this is no time for scorched earth. But I think there are points to be made here in a minority effort. This is a great test for Republicans.

Keep an eye on #spolt my friends. I feel another explosion coming on.

Oh frabjous day! There is going to be a TV show inspired by Twitter! It is at once an exciting prospect, but also a disappointment that by now we haven’t managed to integrate Twitter into every shadowy corner of our lives. I mean, it’s so awesome, how are we not finding endless uses each day?

Anyway. Twitter’s the thing, so of course, capitalize on it. Whatever. I’ve ignored American Idol all these years, and the various Dancing iterations. I don’t imagine it will be hard to steer clear of this. But, the coverage has me simmering for some more #spolt action.

Now, I generally enjoy reading Baker’s stuff. He’s interesting and often lets his readers see inside his process to watch his work evolve. But he’s also become quite the Twitter dig-it.

Right off the bat he’s providing cover for a potential failure: “OK, chances are that the Twitter-inspired TV show will be a flop. Most shows are.” So if it goes down it’s because most shows fail, and not because Twitter is lame and shallow. Definitely not.

If you follow on to the post that Baker links you will find the ultimate: “Twitter is transforming the way people communicate …” I don’t know who annoys me more. People who say stuff like that, or those who latch onto it like it’s gospel. It’s one of those statements that seems broad and sweeping at first blush. But then you think about it and ask things like, “How?” “Seriously? Are you using the same Twitter that I am?” or “What does that even mean?”

I’ll grant you, there are a lot of people on Twitter yacking, but a random cacaphony certainly doesn’t equate to communication. Re-tweets, article links, preaching to the choir and throwing out stuff that you know in advance no one is going to pay any attention to is not communication. It’s noise.

Later Tweeps!

I just can’t believe this. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not heeding the Messiah’s guidance regarding Palestine and West Bank expansion. Clearly the Israeli leader just doesn’t get it.

Hasn’t he seen pictures of Obama’s dog? Or the video of him playing basketball with the North Carolina Tar Heels?

Granted, this was a call for Israel to throw their nation’s security out the window. But that’s leadership for you. Obama wasn’t asking Israel to do anything he hasn’t already done. Plus he’s got Israel’s back on the whole Iran thing. Surely he outlined for Netanyahu his plans to take Ahmadinejad out to lunch and give him a good, stern warning if the Iranians get out of line with the nukes they’ll soon have.

Netanyahu has so much to learn. His insistence on what’s best for his own nation ahead of all else is so old school. You’d never catch Obama doing anything like that, that’s for sure.

Quick! What do the LA Lakers, Denver Nuggets, Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic have in common?

If you said they are all in their NBA Conference Championships you would be correct. But, if you said “name four teams who have no apparent desire to reach the NBA Finals,” you would also be correct.

Both series now move to the underdogs’ home court, tied at 1 game apiece, which is fitting given how the games have gone so far. Did all four games hinge on which team had the ball last, or which team had the opportunity to screw up their chances last?

In LA the Nuggets played like these were mid-December regular season games rather than a battle for a spot in the Finals. Yet the Lakers failed to put them away and let each game come down to the wire. This series could well be 2-0 Denver. But it could just as easily be 2-0 LA. We’re kind of waiting for someone to step up and play like they want to win for more than a few minutes each night.

Now, I did think the West would be close and probably a 6 or 7 game series. But I was thinking more along the lines of a clash of titans, rather than a bunch of guys running around checking their watches.

In the East on the other hand I figured Cleveland would roll. If anything they would lose game 1 because they had so much off time. But here again, where are the Cavs who steamrolled through the first two rounds? Granted, the Magic are more formidable than Detroit or Atlanta, but they also came in with no rest, having played 13 games to the Cavs 8 through the first two rounds. If nothing else Cleveland should be able to grind them down.

Nope. Once again, a battle of teams who don’t particularly care to finish things off when they have the chance. Never was this more apparent than in the thrilling conclusion to last night’s game. Orlando came all the way back from a 23 pt deficit, and found themselves with a 2 pt lead and one second left on the clock. You know the rest. A Lebron catch and shoot from behind the arc later, the Cavs found themselves having salvaged a split at home. That’s a split, in front of their own crowd, in a case where they held double-digit leads in both games. As for Orlando, all that work to dig out of a hole and then they allowed a clean inbound pass to James. With one second left you don’t even have to deny him. Just don’t make it easy and you’re going home to work on a sweep.

I had been rooting for Denver and Cleveland, but right now I’m more intent on figuring out if there is a way that no one can win, because so far no one deserves to.

The latest from John at Powerline discusses how a recent series of polls show that “voters’ attitude toward the Democrats’ agenda is one of less than wild enthusiasm.” Rasmussen’s numbers show that voters overwhelmingly feel that politician spending is a greater problem than voters unwillingness to pay taxes, that the government will do a poor job of running GM and Chrysler, that new energy sources are a more important pursuit than fuel-efficient cars, and that the federal government shouldn’t bail out California.

My thought: This would indeed be bad news for the left, if only we lived in a world where voters punished politicians whose ideas they disagree with by not voting for them! Oh wait. Are we still pretending that this last election was a mandate? Sorry, I forgot.

OK, I’m re-doing this one. I had a lot of tired nights this past week, including when I posted. After re-reading it, this post was so not clear.

For my latest trick, I have installed the Windows 7 RC on my two computers.

It started with my desktop. I realized that my XP Pro copy had run out of lives only after attempting to upgrade that machine. For a while I thought I would be faced with the prospect of re-installing every 30 days or picking up a copy of XP. I mainly use my laptop, so I wasn’t real thrilled by investing a lot in the desktop. When I heard that the RC for 7 was out I wasn’t too hopeful. The desktop is 3 1/2 years old and was a little sluggish at times under XP. Two Windows generations later … that poor HP would be overwhelmed, right?

Not at all. It is at least as quick if not quicker under Windows 7. After reading around, the word is that MS did away with a lot of features to streamline performance. And by “features” I mean stuff I don’t use anyway that slowed down my computer. Well, it definitely feels like an entire layer of behind the scenes “gunk” has been lifted. Very crisp on the execution. There are some interface and structure changes that came in with Vista that I’m still getting used to. They are still there in 7 but again, with the performance improvement the learning process isn’t nearly as annoying. Plus, I remember the first time I saw Windows 95 and thought the interface changes were too drastic. I think I’ll get used to this just fine.

Anyway, the desktop was running so well I decided to switch my laptop over. It had Vista which isn’t the bane everyone makes it out to be, but is also not my favorite. By the way, the Mojave commercials were pointless. No one is arguing that Vista doesn’t have the potential to be a good system. But, unless you are planning to ship a living, breathing MS tech with every copy of Vista, how are those spot relevant?

So, the laptop switch over went great, and I am loving Windows 7. Setup was a piece of cake. 7 even handled my Visual Studio .Net 03 install much better. I wound up having to put it on an XP Virtual Machine on Vista. Networking the machines was also a piece of cake. Syncing with my phone was a pain, but that’s been par for the course since the days when Palm owned the mobile device market.

Of course there was one glitch. One trick that I always unwittingly play on myself. After wiping my hard drives and installing Windows 7 I forgot to re-install all my drivers. So, as I excitedly dove right in, one of my first thoughts was, “Man! The graphics options suck!” Oops. On me. Once I got the drivers in, everything was crystal.

So, it appears my machines are good to go for roughly a year.

So, Sarah Way Down South and I have had a little discussion going on the state of the Republican Party. SWDS pointed out …

Everyone keeps going on and on about how there is no leadership in the GOP, but when someone does emerge with some leadership skills, we dump on them.

Now, I was forced to give her a hard time about it because she went after my guy Romney. But it was a valid point.

First I want to point out that I’m talking about the GOP here and not conservatives. Yes, there is some overlap, but for the most part conservatives know who they are and where they’re at. The GOP on the other hand is a fractured mess right now. Second, while there are plenty of recent examples of what SWDS said, I think we also too often fall for the media’s overhyping any sliver of discord in the ranks. Hopefully we are the people who understand that the ideologically kindred can have constructive debate, and it’s ok if we don’t always fall in lock step behind the party line. But I digress …

The problem is that our party is living in the shadows. Three big shadows at least. And whenever someone steps to the fore, and begins to be seen as potentially the next party leader, they are faced with some impossibly high standards.

First there is the shadow of Reagan. This one’s not fair at all. The man was probably once in a lifetime. It’s like the incessant clamoring in pro hoops to find the next Jordan. Guys come on strong their first year or two in the league and immediately it starts. Is Garnett the next MJ? Is Kobe the next MJ? Is Lebron the next MJ? On and on and on. Same here. We have to remember that even Reagan himself didn’t burst on the scene as the reformer he turned out to be. He spent many years in the crucible of politics before emerging when he was most needed.

Then there is the shadow of Gingrich. To some Newt may seem out of place in this trio. He may not, in the eyes of some, have the same stature as the other two. Personally, as a conservative, I think he is actually the most appropriate model to look to at this time. We need a Gingrich and an Armey. External conditions are very similar to those which brought about the Contract With America and a Republican resurgence in Congress. Sadly, within the party things are very different now. More on this later.

So, is Boehner the new Newt? I don’t know. I’m impressed with the guy. On the one hand he himself is solid and does a great job of communicating the way conservatives need to communicate these days. On the other he isn’t getting near the results from his band of brothers as he is stuck trying to shepherd a group of legislators who are far less principled than Gingrich’s flock in the 90′s. Look no further, once again, than … ahem … the AIG bill. We are 10-15 years down the road now, and we have more Republicans on the hill who are soft, and who have bought into the relativism that pervades our society.

Finally there is the shadow of Obama. We don’t aspire to be him, but to beat him. And if you’re honest, to watch the man, you know it’s going to take someone special. O is gifted, he’s got the media in his pocket and he has managed to successfully disconnect himself from his own policies. I have to admit that I too, when I saw disastrous move after disastrous move come down, assumed that we had little to worry about long term. Just sit back and let these new policies bear fruit and Obama’s sunk. But, again, even when failure becomes obvious, the media will give him a pass (with the exception of his moves to weaken national security). And if that doesn’t work they’ll all get together and simply hand down new definitions for “success” and “failure.”

So, we need a gifted communicator. Mock the teleprompter all you want. The only people who give a rip about that are already in the Republican camp. And we need someone with principles. Ask Sarah Palin how thoroughly the media will investigate every move, every vote, every speech, etc. Let them find the slightest inconsistency and be prepared to spend the rest of your life talking about it. This idea has already narrowed the field. It will be awful tough for any governor who accepted stimulus $$ to run against Obama, which is as it should be.

So, Palin gets hammered. Well, that whole situation is pitiful. It’s unfortunate that John McCain was both the man who introduced Sarah Palin to America, and who doomed her first appearance in the spotlight. Not just because he lost, but because his campaign was such a disaster. She can recover and I hope she does.

Jindal gives a solid, though lackluster speech and is panned. It’s unfortunate, but we realize that it’s not just what you say, but how you say it. Ideally it shouldn’t be that way, but it is. It’s ok. Jindal’s got better than that in him. He’ll recover.

I’ll admit, Romney fails to inspire. Hopefully he’ll be a cabinet member some day.

And so it goes. Fair or unfair, we are looking for the total package.

Much catching up to do, so let’s start with sports …

Over at his blog, Mark Cuban’s apology to Kenyon Martin’s mom is a must read. I hope and assume it was combined with a face-to-face reconciliation. I’m a big fan of Cuban, and was terribly disappointed when I heard about his comments to, or it now seems more likely, in the vicinity of Martin’s mother. There’s no denying that Cuban is controversial and larger than life, but not in that way.

Chalk this one up to a combination of frustration, playoff pressure, poor timing and poorly-executed self-editing. I’m not making excuses for the guy. It happened, and so he has to own it. But I appreciate that he met the whole thing head on, took his medicine and defused the situation.

– B –

I hate to keep going back to Favre. Every time I do I swear it’s the last time. And then dickhead ups the ante. Seriously. Last Thursday Favre took his game to a whole new level. Thursday morning I read and heard that after meeting with the Vikes, Favre had insisted he wanted to stay retired. I was surprised but pleased. Perhaps, after the firestorn that erupted when the Minnesota talk started getting serious, old #4 realized that he was quickly running out of goodwill among NFL fandom. Whatever the reason, a good development for everyone. And then, by supper time that same day, word comes that pics of Favre’s shoulder are en route to Minnesota. What the? He’s escalating. Favre can now do in a day, what he used to spend all spring doing in his later years with the Pack. But I have figured out what’s worse than the impending decision to join the Vikes, shoulder willing, and that is this on again, off again BS.

– B –

To all the writers bashing Joe Torre’s soft handling of the ManRam situation: Please, what do you expect? The penalty is 50 games, not a lifetime ban. He’ll be back yet this season and when he returns Torre has to manage ManRam and his ego. You might have thrown Ramirez under the bus, but Torre is … oh, what’s the word … intelligent.

– B –

To all the “What’s wrong with Tiger?” writers: Nothing yet. He’s off for a year and you are hand-wringing because he doesn’t smoke the field in his first few outings. How many golfers wouldn’t gladly take what Tiger has posted so far this year? In his last three outings, 8th, 4th, 6th. In all three events he was in a position to challenge for the lead at some point during the final round. And you know he’s all about the majors. The Master’s was too early to expect Tiger-esqueness. Not that he doesn’t want to win these tournaments, but I’ve got to believe that mainly he’s trying to play his way back into shape for the next big one. Again, Tiger’s been out for a year. What’s Michelson’s excuse?

I caught a break today. The new router that I ordered wasn’t supposed to get here until Monday, which meant another weekend of dealing with my current on again / off again router, which has become much more off again. I really think it would not have survived until Monday. I had pretty much started resorting to the universal troubleshooting method, developed in the vacuum tube television days, of beating on it. It’s really more of a punishment than a repair.