Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Barack Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court, cast her controversial comment that “a wise Latina” can make a better judge as a matter of diversity.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … HILLARY RETURNS! (SORT OF).
** QUICK HITS. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor took some flak from Republcans on the Senate Judiciary Committee today but passed through without any new controversy or real damage. The hearing continues tomorrow. … With talks continuing behind closed doors, no public progress today in California’s chronic-turned-chaotic budget crisis. But no sniping, either. The issues are as they always are. How much to cut where, how sacrosanct eduction spending is, whether to raid local government or find cuts and gimmicks elsewhere, and so on. While all this drags on, California’s bond rating got another downgrade. … Meanwhile, a big natural gas pipeline project, the Nabucco project, designed to diversify Europe away from its dependence on Russia is running into predictable big problems. … Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, overshadowed in her new role, delivers a major address tomorrow. I’ll explain.
** BIG NEW CONGRESSIONAL HEALTH CARE PLAN. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and several other Californians in Congress, like LA’s Henry Waxman and the San Francisco Bay Area’s George Miller, today revealed the big new health care bill Pelosi intends to pass this month in the House of Representatives. It’s a $1.5 trillion plan that for the first time would make health care a right and a responsibility for all Americans, with medical providers, employers and the wealthiest picking up most of the tab.
The federal government would be responsible for ensuring that every person, regardless of income or the state of their health, has access to an affordable insurance plan. Individuals and employers would have new obligations to get coverage, or face hefty penalties.
Health care overhaul is President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority, and his goal is to slow rising costs and provide coverage to nearly 50 million uninsured Americans.
Democratic leaders said they would push the measure through committee and toward a vote in the full House by month’s end, while the pace of activity quickened on the other side of the Capitol. …
The liberal-leaning plan lacked figures on total costs, but a House Democratic aide said the total bill would add up to about $1.5 trillion over 10 years. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private calculations. Most of the bill’s costs come in the last five years after the 2012 presidential election.
The legislation calls for a 5.4 percent tax increase on individuals making more than $1 million a year, with a gradual tax beginning at $280,000 for individuals. Employers who don’t provide coverage would be hit with a penalty equal to 8 percent of workers’ wages with an exemption for small businesses. Individuals who decline an offer of affordable coverage would pay 2.5 percent of their incomes as a penalty, up to the average cost of a health insurance plan.
And it has the so-called “public option” for a real national health service.
** WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS: ENSIGN SAYS HE’S STAYING ON. Despite being caught up in a massive scandal surrounding his affair with a staffer who was married to one of his top aides – and large amounts of hush money being paid to his mistress, her husband, and their family from various sources (including $100,000 from his wealthy retired casino exec dad), Nevada Senator John Ensign says he’s staying on and running for re-election in 2012.
Ensign, a family values conservative, had been chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee and a dark horse hopeful for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. But he resigned his party leadership post in the wake of revelations.
This is probably not a good idea on Ensign’s part, as this report from today’s Las Vegas Sun may make clear.
Discomfort over the Ensign affair escalated last week after the senator disclosed that his parents had paid $96,000 to the family of Cynthia Hampton, the campaign staffer with whom Ensign had the affair.
She and her husband, Doug Hampton, one of the senator’s top aides, had both left the senator’s employment around the time of the payment in April 2008.
The affair has drawn in Ensign’s colleagues, including Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, a housemate in the Christian home they share in Washington. Mark Sanford, the South Carolina governor who recently admitted an affair with an Argentine woman, has said he sought counseling with those from the C Street house.
In a televised interview last week with Sun columnist Jon Ralston, Doug Hampton said Ensign paid his wife more than $25,000 in severance — a sum that raised alarm because it was not reported, as would have been required, on campaign disclosure statements.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Barack Obama’s pick for the US Supreme Court, is in her second day of Senate confirmation hearings.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama has a day mostly focused on travel, to Middle America. He does a major economic stimulus event in hard-hit Michigan and throws out the first pitch at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, appearing later on the broadcast during the game.
He has already held one-on-one and extended meetings with Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the Netherlands in the Oval Office.
At 7:50 AM Pacific, Obama receives his daily intelligence briefing in the Oval Office.
At 8:05 AM Pacific, Obama receives his daily economic briefing in the Oval Office.
At 8:45 AM Pacific, Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 10:15 AM Pacific, Obama departs the White House on Marine One en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 10:30 AM Pacific, Obama departs Andrews Air Force Base on Air Force One en route to Mt. Clemens, Michigan.
At 11:45 AM Pacific, Obama arrives in Mt. Clemens, Michigan.
At 12:40 PM Pacific, he delivers remarks on community colleges at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan. Obama has a $12 billion initiative on community colleges, which can be a prime source of training and re-education for a changing workforce.
At 2 PM Pacific, Obama departs Mt. Clemens, Michigan en route to St. Louis, Missouri.
At 3:25 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in St. Louis.
At 5:35 PM Pacific, Obama throws out the first pitch at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in St. Louis.
Obama will appear on the All-Star Game broadcast sometime between the third and fifth innings.
At 7 PM Pacific, Obama departs St. Louis, Missouri en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 8:55 PM Pacific, Obama arrives at Andrews Air Force Base.
At 9:10 PM Pacific, Obama arrives back at the White House.
Meanwhile, Obama’s Supreme Court pick, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, is in her second day of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
And Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is in the Middle East, conferring with Gulf Arab leaders, reassuring them about the Obama Administration’s economic moves and talking up International Monetary Fund forecasts which have been revised upward for the second half of 2009 and for 2010.
The six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council, taken together, are America’s second largest creditor behind China, as well as a source, through sovereign wealth funds, of massive investment in US banks and industry.
American troops in Afghanistan are setting up security arrangements for the national election on August 20th.
As he travels today, Obama will also be monitoring a number of geopolitical crises and situations:
In Afghanistan, where his Marine offensive in the south of the country is going well, with light casualties, pushing the Taliban back from positions in which they’d become entrenched. US forces are also fanning out around the country to lay the security groundwork for the country’s election on August 20th.
In Iran, where protests against the June 12 presidential election outcome have mostly abated.
In Pakistan, where refugees displaced by the Pakistani Army offensive, urged by Obama, against the Pakistani Taliban are beginning to return to their homes in the Swat Valley and elsewhere.
In North Korea, where a belligerent Pyongyang has been quiet of late following its fizzled challenge to the US on the 4th of July.
And in Russia, where reaction is still emerging to last week’s Moscow Summit. The Russian media seems mostly positive about Obama and relations with the US, but the proposed anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic continues to be a point of major contention.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds private meetings and discussions in and around the Capitol, focusing on California’s chronic-turned-chaotic budget crisis.
He has no scheduled public events today.
Big 5 negotiations between Schwarzenegger and Democratic and Republican legislative leaders began again late Friday afternoon, continued over the weekend, took a break Monday for staff consultation, and will continue today.
Progress is reportedly being made, but we’ve been down that road before.
** DIMINISHING RETURNS FOR OBAMA’S SUMMITEERING. President Barack Obama returned early Sunday morning from a near week-long international tour that took him to a key summit in Moscow, a G-8 summit, and his first appearance in Africa as president. But some suggested, with his poll numbers down a bit and media attention mostly elsewhere, that his summiteering is having diminishing returns.
Perhaps. But I think it has at least as much to do with the media culture.
American media, especially cable TV news, is moving more into infotainment mode, stuck on a few areas. Geopolitics has never been its strong suit, and political coverage is mostly focused on food fights. Which was unfortunate, as following on to his addresses in Prague and Cairo, Obama gave the final two of his advertised four major speeches on his new geopolitics last week, in Moscow and in Accra, Ghana. …
** OBAMA DOES MOSCOW, AND VICE VERSA. Flying to Italy Wednesday morning for the troubled G-8 summit, President Barack Obama departed Moscow after a very intriguing summit with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
This was the so-called “Reset Summit” to bring American/Russian relations out of the neo-Cold War depths they’d sunk to last year. It certainly succeeded at that, and at some other things as well, especially with regard to sharp reductions in nuclear weapons, aid for the US effort in Afghanistan, and a pullback on NATO expansion, a longtime thorn in the side of Russia. But other sticking points remained, on a US anti-missile shield and on Iran.
All amidst some notable intrigue, some of it generated from the Obama side. …
Unlike most of the rest of Europe, Russia is hardly in the grip of Obamamania. He’s certainly more popular than George W. Bush or John McCain, but that’s damning with faint praise. … From my July 8th column.
** OBAMA’S CONSEQUENTIAL FIRST 4TH: NOKO, AFPAK, IRAQ, RUSSIA, PALIN (PALIN?!) Quite a consequential first 4th of July as president for Barack Obama.
Not only did he have 20 of daughter Malia’s schoolgirl friends over for a Camp David sleepover in honor of her 11th birthday on the 4th of July — just wait till her “Independence Day,” Dad — he had a few other things on his plate, as well as the barbeque for military families and the fireworks show. Not counting his inherited worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
North Korea was to have been the drama of the day. But it turned into a major fizzle. … From my July 4th column.
** THE GOP’S PALIN FOOD FIGHT: WHY NOW? You have to hand it to Sarah Palin. For a sideshow, she’s very good at being the center of attention. Even when she doesn’t want to be.
She had a few big controversies earlier this year — her on-again/off-again headlining of the big GOP congressional fundraiser, her pregnant teenage daughter, the usual Alaska stuff — but she’s hit the jackpot this week with a huge food fight among big name Republicans. What’s unexamined is this question: Why now? … From my July 2nd column.
** TRANSFORMATIVE: LE CINEMA DE MICHAEL BAY. … From my June 29th essay.
** STAR TREK FIRSTS … 43 YEARS ON. … From my June 23rd essay.
** OBAMA AND THE AYATOLLAH. . … From my June 19th column.
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: NORTH KOREA, AGAIN. … From my June 12th column.
** REMEMBERING AMERICA: OBAMA’S D-DAY SPEECH AND TWO DAYS IN JUNE. … From my June 8th column.
** REPOSITIONING AMERICA: OBAMA’S CAIRO SPEECH AS THE ULTIMATE IN EVENT MARKETING. … From my June 4th column.
** TERMINATING THE DARKNESS: HOPE FLOATS, BUT ANXIETY ABIDES. … From my May 31st column.
** THE AVOIDABLE TRAGEDY OF CALIFORNIA’S PROP 8. … From my May 26th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate last fall, prior to the global economic meltdown, with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
You can listen to my recent video webchat with Schwarzenegger here.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record last July 11th, crude oil is trading around $61 per barrel.
This is up about $27 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program. But oil has been slumping over the past week or so from recent highs on fears that the global economic recovery is happening too slowly.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum.
Read 
| Comments (55) |
Sotomayor sounds good.
That’s a good-sounding report on Afghanistan from Al Jazeera.
Barack is turning it around in Afghanistan.
The Republicans are grilling her now. I think she’s doing fine.
Jonas Blane says:
July 14, 2009 at 8:09 am
Sotomayor sounds good.
I just want it to be over.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds private meetings and discussions in and around the Capitol, focusing on California’s chronic-turned-chaotic budget crisis.
He has no scheduled public events today.
Big 5 negotiations between Schwarzenegger and Democratic and Republican legislative leaders began again late Friday afternoon, continued over the weekend, took a break Monday for staff consultation, and will continue today.
Progress is reportedly being made, but we’ve been down that road before.
Where did Hillary go, anyway?
Capitol Boy, I suspecta lot of shadowboxing is going on, as behind the scnes the key players are working toward lining up the stakeholders etc. Apperances are evidently key, especially among the Democrats.
Interesting that while the 2/3 is driving the process that the Republicans seem to have little or no substance as to reforms etc. I guess no taxes is all they care about.
Given demographics and the new process for legislative district drawing isn’t it likely by the middle of the next dercade the Democrats will have enough members in the Assembly and Senate to pass a budget and raise taxes w/o a single Republican vote? Then what will the anti-tax types say who have held up the 2/3 as the holy writ? Rail ineffectually? Long term seems like they are dropping the ball.
lol
Len says:
July 14, 2009 at 10:12 am
Where did Hillary go, anyway?
I thought the Republicans were pushing a bunch of welfare reforms.
Dana says:
July 14, 2009 at 10:25 am
Capitol Boy, I suspecta lot of shadowboxing is going on, as behind the scnes the key players are working toward lining up the stakeholders etc. Apperances are evidently key, especially among the Democrats.
Interesting that while the 2/3 is driving the process that the Republicans seem to have little or no substance as to reforms etc. I guess no taxes is all they care about.
Given demographics and the new process for legislative district drawing isn’t it likely by the middle of the next dercade the Democrats will have enough members in the Assembly and Senate to pass a budget and raise taxes w/o a single Republican vote? Then what will the anti-tax types say who have held up the 2/3 as the holy writ? Rail ineffectually? Long term seems like they are dropping the ball.
To the Obamatory.
Len says:
July 14, 2009 at 10:12 am
Where did Hillary go, anyway?
It does sound good. But, just one thing. Where did the Taliban go?
Jonas Blane says:
July 14, 2009 at 8:12 am
That’s a good-sounding report on Afghanistan from Al Jazeera.
He who runs and hids today live to fight another day.
Bill talked about this during the Iraq surge. The bad guys tend to fade into the countryside when our boys in uniform show up.
Now we know to also lay groundwork by working with locals to undermine the bad guy’s ability to hide and to make retaking control by them later less likely.
>Jack Aubrey says:
July 14, 2009 at 11:32 am
It does sound good. But, just one thing. Where did the Taliban go?
The good thing is that the goal in Afghanistan is less than it was in Iraq.
The Governor has been dusting off some CPR recommendations, I think to get some stuff for his agenda out of the deal. I’m not aware the legislative Republicans have much to do with that. They haven’t even trotted out the usual anti environmental and anti labor demands they love to parade around to the glee of their extreme base.
>9.Jack Aubrey says:
July 14, 2009 at 11:24 am
I thought the Republicans were pushing a bunch of welfare reforms.
Ah, yeah. That too.
>13.Bill Bradley says:
July 14, 2009 at 12:15 pm
The good thing is that the goal in Afghanistan is less than it was in Iraq.
I imagine they felt a sense of self-preservation.
While they can live to fight another day, they are losing a lot of face by pulling out of supposed strongholds.
> Jack Aubrey says:
July 14, 2009 at 11:32 am (Edit)
It does sound good. But, just one thing. Where did the Taliban go?
Jonas Blane says:
July 14, 2009 at 8:12 am
That’s a good-sounding report on Afghanistan from Al Jazeera.
She’s been a serious Obama team player, even allowing her personal staff to be approved, or not …
> Jack Aubrey says:
July 14, 2009 at 11:25 am (Edit)
To the Obamatory.
Len says:
July 14, 2009 at 10:12 am
Where did Hillary go, anyway?
It’s true, the legislative Republicans have had remarkably little of substance to say.
> Dana says:
July 14, 2009 at 10:25 am (Edit)
Capitol Boy, I suspecta lot of shadowboxing is going on, as behind the scnes the key players are working toward lining up the stakeholders etc. Apperances are evidently key, especially among the Democrats.
Interesting that while the 2/3 is driving the process that the Republicans seem to have little or no substance as to reforms etc. I guess no taxes is all they care about.
Given demographics and the new process for legislative district drawing isn’t it likely by the middle of the next dercade the Democrats will have enough members in the Assembly and Senate to pass a budget and raise taxes w/o a single Republican vote? Then what will the anti-tax types say who have held up the 2/3 as the holy writ? Rail ineffectually? Long term seems like they are dropping the ball.
She’s making no mistakes.
> Capitol Boy says:
July 14, 2009 at 8:30 am (Edit)
The Republicans are grilling her now. I think she’s doing fine.
Jonas Blane says:
July 14, 2009 at 8:09 am
Sotomayor sounds good.
The mission is on plan.
> Jonas Blane says:
July 14, 2009 at 8:12 am (Edit)
That’s a good-sounding report on Afghanistan from Al Jazeera.
Additional video today?
“…the senator disclosed that his parents had paid $96,000 to the family of Cynthia Hampton, the campaign staffer with whom Ensign had the affair…Ensign paid his wife more than $25,000 in severance…”
Elliot Spitzer spent roughly the same amount for “pay as you go” peccadillo’s. Ensign apparently ran a tab and gets to keep his seat. Timing’s everything I guess…
And how about the wife getting only 25% of the mistress’ take. It raises that age-old question – who really benefits from outsourcing?
Judge Sotomayor did extremely well today. The right-wingers took their shots and it didn’t matter.
We’ll see how many are slavish to their biased base.
It does feel that way. It helps that the mission isn’t building a modern country.
Bill Bradley says:
July 14, 2009 at 12:29 pm
The mission is on plan.
> Jonas Blane says:
July 14, 2009 at 8:12 am (Edit)
That’s a good-sounding report on Afghanistan from Al Jazeera.
lol
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … HILLARY RETURNS! (SORT OF).
The “public option” in the House health care bill won’t kick in until 2013. By putting it out so far it increases the possibility that it will never become effective. This is not health care reform, it is a bill designed to increase business for private insurance companies with its universal coverage (but no public option) design.
Today, during questioning of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, Senator Graham committed a cardinal sin…he referred to Sotomayor as, ‘Ma’am’. I guess he wasn’t in the room when a fellow military man did the same thing to Senator Boxer.
It’s a small thing, but very telling.
I’m glad Triathloon’s gunk is deleted before I have to complain.
Do you think a national health care system can get set up faster than that?
The government is lucky to build a road or put books in a classroom in that amount of time.
larry says:
July 14, 2009 at 5:21 pm
The “public option” in the House health care bill won’t kick in until 2013. By putting it out so far it increases the possibility that it will never become effective. This is not health care reform, it is a bill designed to increase business for private insurance companies with its universal coverage (but no public option) design.
Capitol Boy says:
July 14, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Do you think a national health care system can get set up faster than that?
Sure–we already have Medicare, which is national. It’s not necessary to re-invent the wheel. To coin a phrase.
Enactment of a health program along the lines of what the House has proposed would be the biggest liberal domestic policy victory since…since…since…1970 and the creation of the EPA??
I disagree. It’s no victory to require everyone to buy health insurance from insurance companies, but refuse to have an effective public option, or any kind of reform of the insurance providers. It’s a capitulation, not a victory.
Missile base in Poland is only stumbling block for a Russia/America alliance.
What new video today?
Obama and Willie Mays at the All-Star Game and a Hillary anti-Obama ad.
Perhaps.
> sergei says:
July 15, 2009 at 3:44 am (Edit)
Missile base in Poland is only stumbling block for a Russia/America alliance.
Effective? Don’t you mean immediate?
> larry says:
July 15, 2009 at 12:44 am (Edit)
I disagree. It’s no victory to require everyone to buy health insurance from insurance companies, but refuse to have an effective public option, or any kind of reform of the insurance providers. It’s a capitulation, not a victory.
Remember a few years ago when a lot of people were claiming the only reason California didn’t have single-payer is because Schwarzenegger wouldn’t sign it?
Not that the bill actually funded it, with necessary tax hikes that wouldn’t pass.
> Clutch J says:
July 14, 2009 at 11:48 pm (Edit)
Enactment of a health program along the lines of what the House has proposed would be the biggest liberal domestic policy victory since…since…since…1970 and the creation of the EPA??
Is it sexist when a male senator is referred to as “Sir?”
> Elizabeth Miller says:
July 14, 2009 at 5:25 pm (Edit)
Today, during questioning of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, Senator Graham committed a cardinal sin…he referred to Sotomayor as, ‘Ma’am’. I guess he wasn’t in the room when a fellow military man did the same thing to Senator Boxer.
It’s a small thing, but very telling.
Where’s the 25% figure come from?
>Brasky says:
July 14, 2009 at 3:27 pm (Edit)
“…the senator disclosed that his parents had paid $96,000 to the family of Cynthia Hampton, the campaign staffer with whom Ensign had the affair…Ensign paid his wife more than $25,000 in severance…”
Elliot Spitzer spent roughly the same amount for “pay as you go” peccadillo’s. Ensign apparently ran a tab and gets to keep his seat. Timing’s everything I guess…
And how about the wife getting only 25% of the mistress’ take. It raises that age-old question – who really benefits from outsourcing?
As long as that’s not forgotten …
> marcos leon says:
July 14, 2009 at 4:51 pm (Edit)
It does feel that way. It helps that the mission isn’t building a modern country.
Bill Bradley says:
July 14, 2009 at 12:29 pm
The mission is on plan.
> Jonas Blane says:
July 14, 2009 at 8:12 am (Edit)
That’s a good-sounding report on Afghanistan from Al Jazeera.
Most Republicans will vote against her.
> marcos leon says:
July 14, 2009 at 4:48 pm (Edit)
Judge Sotomayor did extremely well today. The right-wingers took their shots and it didn’t matter.
We’ll see how many are slavish to their biased base.
I was kind of hoping that no one would notice that remark – or that it would somehow get deleted or otherwise erased from the record! – about Senator Graham referring to Judge Sotomayor as ma’am. Because, not long after I wrote that I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard Judge Sotomayor refer to a senator as ‘sir’!
I don’t know whether either example could be called sexist but, it’s just not right…you know, not proper ettiquette. I guess I’m just with Senator Boxer on this one…though, in that case, she was conversing with a guy from the US Army Corps of Engineers ( the outfit responsible for the drowning of New Orleans) and I think she was already miffed to begin with.
Maybe it’s just personal…I’m far from being the overly sensitive type but I always say, call me anything you want, except late for dinner and…ahem… ‘ma’am’!
I’ve known and liked Barbara Boxer since I was a kid but there’s a chip on that shoulder. It’s PC bull, with a hint of knee-jerk anti-military. And for the record, the Army Corps of Engineers played a huge role in building this country.
Sotomayor has the correct etiquette down pat.
You never go wrong with “sir” or “ma’am.’
Always a shorter way than saying the full title, or your honor, excellency, blah blah blah …
I still hate being called ma’am.
Well, I can’t account for that.
In the US Armed Forces, as Barbara must know by now, it is customary to refer to a superior officer as “sir” or “ma’am.”
Something which the media doesn’t know any more, since hardly any have been in the military at this point.
Quite unlike the past.
I can’t account for it, either…it’s weird, really…ma’am just seems to have, for me at least, a certain condescending kind of tone to it while ’sir’ doesn’t have that feel to it…but, whatever…looking forward to your Hillary piece…
I’ve never particularly enjoyed being called “sir,” either, as it makes me feel old and summons up an image of golf clubs in the boot of the Jag. And I don’t play golf.
But both terms, employed by a military officer, are clearly signs of respect.
That’s it! It makes me feel old. Thank-you!!
And, I agree with all of your comments Re. the military.