UPDATE: Readers have informed me that in Google Feedreader RSS, this post has Russian Erection Pill spam or something at the top. Please ignore, as I would never promote a pill that Rush Limbaugh has been caught sneaking into Thailand. And speaking of the ole boy himself, I now give you this very nonsexy video:

UPDATE 2: I’ve added, at bottom of post, the reaction video of Billo Riley hatin’ on Presente.Org. It’s kinda sweet. However, I advise against any actual viewing of him or listening to his voice for an extended period of time as it is damaging to human sanity. Use a mirror, or something. One of those milk carton doodads.

SO YESTERDAY AND TODAY have been the SCOTUS hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court. I have no doubt that she’ll shatter the small stereotype some of these ailing senators like Jeff Sessions hold in their brittle minds, and it may hurt. I also have no doubt she will rock the process in general, and we shall see her on the Supreme Court before long.

On the Limburger video, I’m just not sure what more I can add about old white rich men who call a Latina JUDGE a “racist,” except to sigh and point out that this is a tired trick that Rove thought he’d make his bones on (and instead buried his reputation under). It’s what we call in the trenches, “insanity.” Some call it “perversion of truth,” and in the therapeutic field is known as “projection.” And this dynamic of the Madding Right has been covered again and again, so I won’t waste any time on that. But it is funny how disturbing it is to some that we refer to Latinas not as “the help,” or “hot and spicy” or “emotional” or “crazy,” but WISE. Whoa. Now that is just OUT OF CONTROL!!!! Ay Dios Mio! Next thing you know, they’ll be trying to put a darkie into the White House.

That we have a black president who is appointing people of color to positions of power is a wonderful thing. This is what the myth story of the USA is all about. It would be less of a myth and more of a legend if entrenched white powers didn’t spit on the fable as it turned to flesh; didn’t call it uglynames, didn’t project their own fear and revulsion on the changing times. But I expect it of them. I can only paraphrase Bobby D at this point and say, hey Rush, Jeff, Pat and the rest of yaz—your old road is rapidly agin’. So get the hell out the new one if you can’t lend a hand! SING IT WITH ME

Below is the transcript of the Rush Limburger video as well as Presente.Org’s announcement and campaign to support Judge Sotomayor, whom I endorse.

—————
From Presente.org:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, July 13, 2009

Spanish-Language Ads Slam Republicans for Racist Sotomayor Comments
Presente Action launches Florida radio ads calling out Republican politicians for refusing to denounce Rush Limbaugh’s attacks

Online activism will keep ads on the air: www.DenunciaRush.com

FLORIDA — As Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings begin this week in Congress, Presente Action — a Latino online advocacy organization — announced new radio ads in Florida supporting Sotomayor’s nomination and slamming Republican politicians for refusing to denounce Rush Limbaugh’s racist attacks on Sotomayor.

The Spanish-language ads will run the first two days of the hearings in Orlando and Tampa, cities rich with Hispanic voting populations.

They target Republican Congressmen John Mica (Orlando) and Adam Putnam (Tampa), who Presente Action called in June and asked to denounce Limbaugh’s remarks calling Sotomayor “a bigot and a racist.” They both insisted on staying silent.

“Judge Sotomayor’s nomination is an important moment for our community, and her intelligence and fair-mindedness will be on full display this week,” said Gabriel Rey-Goodlatte, a spokesperson for Presente Action. “Our ad campaign is a warning to national Republican politicians. This week, if they pile on to attacks on Sotomayor and refuse to denounce the hateful, offensive rhetoric from Republican leaders like Rush Limbaugh, Latino voters will hear about it just as Putnam and Mica’s constituents are hearing about it today.”

The Progressive Campaign Change Committee (PCCC), which works to elect bold progressives to Congress, has endorsed the ad campaign and is helping to raise money to keep it on the air at www.DenunciaRush.com. The site includes an English-language YouTube version of the radio ad.

Orlando-area Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) quickly issued harsh words for Limbaugh when asked for comment by Presente Action.

“We are one America. We are united not by race, or by religion, but by our common values. We have an African-American President and, soon, a Puerto Rican Supreme Court Justice. I’m proud of that. You’re proud of that. And if Rush Limbaugh doesn’t like it, that’s just too bad.”

An initial buy will saturate the two largest Spanish-language radio stations in Mica’s and Putnam’s districts — WYUU in Tampa and WRUM in Orlando — which reach hundreds of thousands of people each day. Additional buys will happen as money is raised online.

Presente Action is an advocacy organization affiliated with Presente.org, a new online organizing organization focused on Hispanic and Latino issues. It has over 25,000 members. A number of prominent national progressive bloggers have endorsed this ad campaign including:

Manuel Guzman, Latino Político
Adriana Maestas, Latino Politics Blog
Kenneth Quinnell, Executive Director, Florida Progressive Coalition
Chris Bowers, OpenLeft
Howie Klein, DownWithTyranny
John Amato, CrooksandLiars
Alison Berke Morano, Chair, Florida Democratic County Chair’s Association
John Aravosis, AmericaBlog
Joe Sudbay, AmericaBlog
Digby, Hullabaloo
Eric K. Ward, Imagine 2050
Kyle de Beauset, Citizen Orange
Nezua Limón Xolagrafik-Jones, The Unapologetic Mexican

###

Script below. Hispanic voting populations here:

Orlando media market:
FL-08: Grayson (D), hispanic pop 18%
FL-24: Kosmas (D), hispanic pop 10%
FL-03: Brown (D), hispanic pop 8%
FL-07: Mica (R), hispanic pop 7%

St. Petersburg media market:
FL-12: Putnam (R), hispanic pop 12%
FL-11: Castor (D), hispanic pop 20%
FL-10: Young (R), hispanic pop 4.4%
FL-09: Bilirakis (R), hispanic pop 8%

Stats here:
http://www.techpolitics.org/congress/110fh1.php?sort_field=State&sort_order=asc

Translation
In Spanish:

“Sonia Sotomayor is set to be the first Latina, and the first Puerto Rican, to serve on the US Supreme Court. It is a proud moment for our community. Yet Republican leaders insist on attacking her:”

In English:

“She doesn’t have any intellectual depth. She’s got a — she’s an angry woman, she’s a bigot. She’s a racist.”

In Spanish:

That’s Republican leader Rush Limbaugh calling Judge Sotomayor a racist and a bigot.

It’s insulting to all Latinos and Americans.

We asked Republican Congressman Adam Putnam if he would denounce Limbaugh’s words. He refused to reply. Let’s put a stop to the hate. Call Congressman Putnam today at 863-534-353 and tell him to condemn this language.

This ad was paid for by Presente Action

Mica Translation

[Only the bottom section is different]

It’s insulting to all Latinos and Americans. We asked Republican Congressman John Mica if he would denounce Limbaugh’s words. His response? Silence.

Let’s put a stop to the hate. Call Congressman Mica today at 407-657-8080 and tell him to condemn this language.

This ad was paid for by Presente Action

Putnam As It Sounds

Sonia Sotomayor esta apunto de ser la primera latina y la primera puertorriqueña a servir en la Corte Suprema de los Estados Unidos. Es un momento de orgullo para nuestra comunidad. Sin embargo, los lideres republicanos insisten en atacarla.

“She doesn’t have any intellectual depth. She’s got a — she’s an angry woman, she’s a bigot. She’s a racist.”

Eso fue el lider Republicano, Rush Limbaugh diciendo que la Juez Sotomayor es racista y prejuiciada. Esto es un insulto a todos los Latinos y Americanos.

Le preguntamos al congresista Republicano Adam Putnam si denunciaría las palabras de Limbaugh. El se negó a responder.

Pongamos alto al odio. Llame hoy al congresista Adam Putnam al 863-534-3530 y pidale que condene este language.

Este anuncio fue pagado por Presente Action

Mica As It Sounds

Le pedimos al congresista Republicano John Mica si denunciaría las palabras de Limbaugh. Su respuesta? Silencio.

Pongamos alto al odio. Llame hoy al congresista John Mica al 407-657-8080 y pide que condene este lenguage.

Este anuncio fue pagado por Presente Action

UPDATE 2:

[For those new to UMX, The Weekly Immigration Wire is my weekly (paid) article I write for The Media Consortium. It is a column that runs on a few other sites (see end of post) and is written with a more formal voice than other blog posts found on this site.]

by Nezua, TMC MediaWire Blogger

On Tuesday, President Obama announced Sonia Sotomayor as his pick to replace Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Sotomayor could be the first Latina appointed to the Supreme Court. Predictably, attacks and slurs from the Right are already flying. Regardless, Sotomayor would be an excellent choice for the Supreme Court, signaling to Latino/as that the White House is aware of our need for more representation in government.

Reporting on Sotomayor’s nomination, the Washington Independent’s Daphne Eviatar notes that, while the choice doesn’t push the envelope in terms of liberalness, it does indicate that Obama was “willing to stand up to unfounded criticism of Sotomayor as a far-left liberal.” Interestingly enough, President George H. W. Bush originally nominated Sotomayor for the district court, and her life reads like Many GOP-adored tales of hard work leading to success.

Which leads one to wonder why are they attacking Sotomayor’s nomination with such vitriol, by painting her as a “radical, judicial activist/scary Latina feminist/underqualified diversity pick“? As Michelle Chen reports for RaceWire, Sotomayor has a reputation for “principled independence suffused with real-world experience” and the GOP’s squawking is a typical barrage of “hypocrisy, shrill animosity and racist code words.”

Sotomayor describes herself as a “Newyorican,” which is someone who has been born in New York City from parents hailing from Puerto Rico. While her nomination sparked controversy as to whether or not one can technically “immigrate” from Puerto Rico, there is no denying the country’s colonial history. Many see Sotomayor’s nomination as a success story for immigrants. She certainly does.

New America Media’s Roberto Lovato writes that despite the GOP’s desire to overlook Sotomayor’s uplifting and quintessentially “American” story, the Republican party would do well to use this opportunity very carefully. Sotomayor’s nomination provides an opportunity to draw a line between the GOP that bled Latino/a votes due to their immigration stance and what they hope to become. According to Lovato, Sotomayor—and we—should view the confirmation hearings as “nothing less than a trial to determine whether the GOP is ready to make restitution for its role in a number of judicial and political wrongdoings perpetrated in the Bush era.”

But it doesn’t seem that the Republican party is very concerned with the Latino/Hispanic vote, let alone common decency, judging by the desperate moves of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, an immigrant himself. In an attempt to clean up the state deficit, Schwarzenegger would “eliminate four programs that provide money and food to more than 100,000 legal immigrants,” many “elderly and disabled.” This action will hurt many people who are a vital part of our social fabric.

Daphne Eviatar, writing for the Center for Independent Media, reports on the perversely-named “Secure Communities” initiative, in which ICE officals are quoted defending a program that aims to deport those ticketed for so much as a red light. Under this soon to be expanded program, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to deport “tens of thousands” of immigrants in 2010. Under the Secure Communities initiative, even a legal immigrant could be deported if accused and not able to hire or enlist legal representation.

Secure Communities “represents a new comprehensive approach to remove all criminal aliens held in the United States prisons and jails.” Even the phrase “criminal aliens” conjures up visions of hooded creatures with sinister intent…and maybe dangling antennae. Little is required to sweep an immigrant into the detention system and classify them as “criminal.” It can be nothing more than an overstayed visa, or being profiled at a 7-11 by ICE officials looking to make quota. It’s all part of a thriving detention industry: DHS projects a budget for new detention centers, including the needed number of arrests (400,000 are planned for next year) to fund and staff said centers. As a result, arrests are made for any infraction, imagined or real, the beds are filled, the lawyers can’t be afforded and aren’t provided, workers and family members are deported, the budgets justified, the checks cut, and the detention center industry looms larger every day.

In Deportation While U Wait, RaceWire’s Michelle Chen reports that ICE has found a way to further expedite the process. “At one downtown Los Angeles courthouse,” Chen writes, “Officials have found an efficient way to cut through the red tape: kicking people out of the country without waiting for a decision from the judge.” If there is a previous deportation order in their records, ICE rules on their own and deports the man or woman. But we should be careful to rush to judgment as often, “what looks on paper like a justifiable deportation often masks the nuances of individual hardships and structural problems that limit immigrants’ ability to press their legal cases.”

In the Colorado Independent, Erin Rosa reports that the Obama Administration is moving forward with plans to end the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which funds local jails and state prisons to house undocumented immigrants. Rosa notes that Colorado “netted $3.1 million from the program last year, and $3.3 million in 2007.” The White House defends the move by saying the resources can “better be used to enhance federal enforcement efforts.”

There are many people waiting to see those “enhanced” efforts in the shape of legislation. There is hope these efforts will improve the quality of peoples’ lives, not DHS’s budget. Many people who harbor those hopes demonstrated in Postville, Iowa in memory of the ICE raid that shattered the community a year ago. Lynda Waddington writes of this year’s difference in attitude for the Iowa Independent. In 2008, emotions were raw and more anger was expressed, but this year, there was “a specific focus and call for comprehensive immigration reform.”

YOU KNOW what everyone is talking about! Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor! And it’s great news. I like to see a smart Latina make her way into this possibility (and in fact there needs to be more women in general in that court, you know?) though such a move does not, of course, undo the White House’s actions/inactions in other areas that hurt Latin America. But we know that. And this is exciting to see for a few reasons. Also, I have to add, it’s really nice to see my Puerto Rican amigas so happy today. (Just as it is offputting to hear a few strange conversations that are flitting around out there about the hair of her honor! Ah, one “type” of Latin@ getting up in the world always gets us alll throwing punches for a minute! But let’s be happy for her and prove Rushlimbo wrong about this dividing Latin@s.)

The announcement!

And who better to celebrate with, but this Interesting cat?