Don't forget the sexism!

And here I thought the attacks on Sotomayor would just be race-related. G. Gordon Liddy:

Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something, or just before she’s going to menstruate. That would really be bad. Lord knows what we would get then.

I really must stop paying attention to this stuff, but I can't avert my eyes.

Credit where due: To the extent that Gingrich, Liddy, Beck, Tancredo and others are trying to make Republican senators look sane by comparison, they're doing an excellent job.

"A Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses"

That's how former Rep. Tom Tancredo described the National Council of La Raza, of which Sonia Sotomayor is a member. Yes, obviously a bombastic statement, but an interesting one. Let's take the "hoods" to represent secrecy and the "nooses" to represent violence. What would the KKK be without secrecy or violence? Just a bunch of guys with unpopular views who sit around and bitch about the world.

I can think of many organizations that fit that description. La Raza is not at the top of that list.

Fantasy GOP

I'm still working on that lecture on the future of the GOP, but it looks like the Washington Times isn't doing me any favors. This article (thank you, Coloradopols) is filled with all sorts of fantastical claims about how well positioned the GOP is now that they're unpopular and out of power. The Colorado Independent takes care of some of the more obvious problems with the article, such as the claim that Colorado had two Democratic senators last year (it didn't) and the claim that Republican leaders like competitive primaries (they don't). But my favorite quote has to be this one from former Gov. Owens:

"One of the prerequisites for victory is to go through a defeat," said Mr. Owens, who served two terms as governor in the Republicans' heyday from 1998 to 2006. "I would have preferred it not happen, but that definitely lays the groundwork for victory."

Okay, does anyone know what he's talking about? Defeat lays the groundwork for victory? Defeat is a prerequisite for victory? I mean, let's just grant that some day -- maybe years or decades from now -- the Republicans will again be the majority party. Does anyone think that's because they're out of power now? Oh, wait, here's more from Bill:

"Being in the minority focuses the mind," Mr. Owens said. "It allows us to bring new people into the coalition and reminds us we have more in common with each other than we do with the Democrats."

Yes, you get the pleasure of bringing new people into the coalition. Of course, it might have been nice not to lose those people in the first place.

This logic seems familiar.

Can an LA kid root for the Nuggets?

I grew up in LA. (Well, the LA suburbs, but whatever.) While I don't normally pay much attention to professional sports, I was a proud Laker fan during my teenage years. I attended numerous Laker games in the 80s, including a playoff game at which my brother sank a halftime free throw to win 600 RC Colas. I cheered them on as they defeated the Celtics in '85 and '87. I saw Mike Smrek at a Baja Cantina in Marina Del Rey after one of those games. All this is to say that my Laker fandom credentials are intact.

That said, I have lived in Denver for the past five years. The city has been good to me. I found a job here when no one else would hire me, and the city's Democrats elected me as a national convention delegate last year. I have many friend here and I own a house here. I grew up in LA, but Denver is my home.

So where does my loyalty properly lie in a rivalry between the Lakers and the Nuggets? I feel pained rooting against either one, but given how infrequently I actually follow NBA playoffs, I feel stupid remaining silent now that I'm paying attention. (Let's just stipulate that I have zero impact on the outcome of this series one way or another.)

The truth is, I've been rooting for the Nuggets. I feel more of a loyalty to them than I do to today's Lakers, who, as it turns out, no longer employ Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Kurt Rambis, or Byron Scott. I don't feel especially loyal to Kobe Bryant, who's kind of icky, or to Phil Jackson, who was one of the Laker's main enemies two decades ago.

Of course, it's a situational alliance. I will root for whichever team emerges victorious from the Western playoffs. I mean, you've got to consider the situation, right? I will always root for the Lakers over the Celtics, for Cal over Stanford, and for UCLA over USC. But if Stanford were playing against, say, the University of North Korea, I'd pretty much have to root for Stanford, wouldn't I? Just as I'd have to root for USC if they traveled back in time to play against Berlin State in 1939.

Advice to Sotomayor's opponents

Stop using overt racism. Symbolic racism works much better.

Red shoulder bug

These guys are all over my garden this year, although they don't seem to be eating any vegetables. Anyone know if they're a problem?

Pushing Popkin to the limit

Sam Popkin's The Reasoning Voter opens with a discussion of the use of food in politics. As he argues, a high profile food faux pas, such as Gerald Ford eating an unshucked tamale in San Antonio or George McGovern ordering a kosher hot dog with milk in Manhattan, can send a loud signal to voters who normally don't pay much attention to politics. So what to make of this?

Canada's governor general ate a slaughtered seal's raw heart in a show of support to the country's seal hunters, a display that a European Union spokeswoman on Tuesday called "too bizarre to acknowledge."

Governor General Michaelle Jean, the representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as Canada's head of state, gutted the seal and swallowed a slice of the mammal's organ late Monday after an EU vote earlier this month to impose a ban on seal products on grounds that the seal hunt is cruel.

Presumably this is an expression of support for the Inuit. Or Michaelle Jean is the most gangsta representative the Queen has ever appointed.