Assumptions of Incompetence

What we have learned from the hateful talk radio chatter about the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor is that too many white people assume that people of color are not competent. The claims that despite her education, graduating with honors, and seventeen years on the federal bench, somehow she just hasn't got what she needs to be on the Supreme Court. Her years of judicial experience are greater at the moment of her nomination than any other seated justice.

It's about her being Puerto Rican. It's about her being a woman. Although I support her nomination, I wish Obama had chosen someone who was more leftist, not as centrist.

Now one of the stalwarts of conservatism of the US Senate, Tom Coburn (R-Ka.), has endorsed a bill that would require President Barack Obama to produce a birth certificate to prove that he is indeed a citizen.

As if Obama hasn't proven himself as probably the only qualified person to lead the United States through these treacherous times! There must be something wrong with him, according to the sponsors of this legislation that has support in the House and now has Senate sponsors. Let's undetermine his legitimacy.

I have lots of complaints about Obama, but qualifications are not part of my litany. I want him to be more radical, move this country to sustainable economics, regulate the shit out of the financial markets, make health care universal and provided with dignity, get out of Afghanistan and Iraq, prosecute Bush and Cheney and the rest of the mob of the Bush administration.

There is a difference, a real difference, in critiquing how and wondering whether.