Chevyboy, thanks for the laugh after days of not being able to access this site which was so frustrating: both the horror when it was open and malfunctioning and then the downtime. Not sure which was worse.

edited to correct misspelling.

How wonderful to be back on one of my most favorite parts of BC. Org. I'm hoping Now that we are all on the way to good fixes. HOORAY.

Hello to all! Yes, that was an unfortunate blackout that left me a bit out of sorts! Here’s the email I received from the Mods earlier today, posting it incase some of you didn’t see it:

We're so glad to be back with you! Please know our goal in the past few days was to get the community back up and running after having to go down with the significant issues that we saw last Friday. The issues with Active Topics and My Favorites were priority, as well as improving load time and reduction of error pages, in order to get the community back online and function as it was prior to Friday, if not a little bit better.

The technical difficulties that resulted from reskinning the site pages caused a series of issues with the older site code that's in place. We are aware those difficulties are still occurring, and we are still working on them.

We are moving forward with plans for the community's new tech platform and will have more to share in the coming weeks. Your patience while we improve your experience is greatly appreciated.

Grateful to be back with you.

--The Mods

You just KNOW they're auditioning for the GQP nomination for Pres. in 2024...or angling for 45 to pick them as his running mate. (Marsha Blackburn included). They know the real answers to their questions, especially those Senators with a legal background. A defendant's right to zealous defense has been drilled into every attorney since the first day of law school (and maybe earlier, in Poli Sci in college). Ditto the difference between the roles of trial attorney, trial judge and appellate judge. They're just posturing peacocks (and one peahen) spreading out their tail feathers (and whipping out their figurative d**ks) to prove just how far-right-wing they are.

What I found the most outrageous, though (and inexplicable that no TV commentators have decried it) was Lindsey Graham's question about how often Judge Jackson attends church. WTF??? No Democrats asked that of Barrett, Kavanaugh, or Gorsuch. Jackson exercised extreme restraint by stating that she prefers not to discuss her faith. I'd have let loose a string of invective beginning with "none of your (minced-oath expletive) business" and ending with "that's not relevant." By asking her that, not only were they signaling their party's desire to make the Federal gov't a Christian theocracy but implying that one cannot be moral unless they're a doctrinaire Catholic. (Nobody of either party asked that of Breyer, Kagan or Ginsburg, but that was back in a more sensible and civil era). But it was not lost on me how similar that question--impugning her Americanism--was to Trump's birtherist attempt to paint Obama as an African-born Muslim. Clarence Thomas famously decried questions about his sexual harassment of Anita Hill as a "high-tech lynching." Well, this isn't in the least "high-tech," but it's as close to a verbal lynching as Congress gets.

I expect that at least Murkowski, Collins, Toomey & Romney won't stoop to that level, and will vote to confirm Jackson, making Harris' tiebreaking vote unnecessary. But I've overestimated at least Collins' integrity before.

I saw this headline, tho since it was F-X news, Imdidn’t open the link:

Mackenzie Scott just made the largest single donation in Planned Parenthood history

Jonathan Franklin March 24, 20224:09 PM ET

Billionaire philanthropist and novelist MacKenzie Scott has donated $275 million to the reproductive health care nonprofit Planned Parenthood — the largest-ever gift made to the organization.

In an announcement Wednesday in a Medium post, Scott detailed her latest donations to 465 organizations and institutions, including Habitat for Humanity, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Urban Teachers.

She says the primary focus of her philanthropy is to support "underrepresented people from groups of all kinds."

"The cause of equity has no sides. Nor can it have a single solution," Scott said in her post.

"We are all human. And we all have enormous energy to devote to helping and protecting those we love," she also said.

Scott, who divorced Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos in 2019, so far has given away more than $12 billion to nearly 1,200 groups. In her divorce from Bezos, she received a 4% stake in Amazon. Currently, her estimated net worth is $48.3 billion.

The large donation was made to Planned Parenthood's national office and 21 regional affiliates, a move that is part of Scott's 2019 pledge to give away the majority of her wealth.

"We are incredibly grateful for Ms. Scott's extraordinary philanthropic investment in Planned Parenthood, as a critical part of the public health infrastructure," Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement.

The donation, McGill Johnson says, will support the nonprofit's efforts to improve health equity for its patients of color by eliminating racial and structural barriers in the community.

Judge Jackson's behaviors during her GRILLING the last four days was exemplary. I'm sure she was highly aware of what she could expect, but a few ( like Blackburn, Cruz especially, Graham, and Hawley were egregious in the extreme. None of those people ( as Lawrence O' Donnell mentioned on his show last night ) had any interest from the get-go about Judge Jackson's QUALIFICATIONS. Moot point totally for them. They were indeed in auditioning mode for later on.

I put it here because I did notice it and wonder just how Farah ( not trying to disparage Farah you understand ) Fawcett Majors she was trying to be and why wasn't someone kind enough to tell her She doesn't need to be 32 right now.

Betrayal, I totally share your opinion about the fact that Thomas should resign and if he doesn't, he should not so gently be discouraged from trying to hang onto his current position. He has been worthless for a long time.

In January, I treated myself to a one-year subscription to The Washington Post for $9.99. (Yes, I know it's left leaning). Here's a great article I read today (me fan-girling on KBJ again).

Opinion | The GOP tried to tar Judge Jackson. Cory Booker celebrated her.

The Washington Post/Eugene Robinson

Booker's turn to question Jackson came toward the end of the session. She had been badgered all day by Republicans who pretended to be outraged by the sentences she imposed in several child pornography cases when she was a U.S. district court judge. Republican Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Ted Cruz (Tex.) had been particularly obnoxious, interrupting Jackson repeatedly and trying their best not to let her defend herself.

Booker greeted Jackson with a broad smile. "Your family and you speak to service, service, service," he began. "And I'm telling you right now, I'm not letting anybody in the Senate steal my joy. … I just look at you, and I start getting full of emotion."

The senator said he had been jogging that morning when an African American woman, a stranger, "practically tackled" him to explain how much it meant to her to see Jackson sitting in the witness chair.

"And you did not get there because of some left-wing agenda," Booker said. "You didn't get here because of some 'dark money' groups. You got here how every Black woman in America who's gotten anywhere has done. By being, like Ginger Rogers said, 'I did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards, in heels.' And so I'm just sitting here saying nobody's stealing my joy. Nobody is going to make me angry."

Booker noted that he was just the fourth African American to be popularly elected to the Senate, rather than appointed to his post or elected by a state legislature. He said that during his first week at the Capitol, an older Black man who worked on the cleaning crew came up to him and began crying. "And I just hugged him, and he just kept telling me, 'It's so good to see you here.'"

He said Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who also is African American, understood what he meant. Booker and Scott are at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum — Booker a progressive Democrat, Scott a far-right Republican — but he credited Scott with having given "the best speech on race — I wish I could have given as good of a speech. … Talking of the challenges and indignities that are still faced. And you're here."

Booker recalled that during a meeting at the White House when President Biden was trying to decide whom to nominate, he and Vice President Harris exchanged the same "knowing glance" that they used to share when Harris was a senator and she sat next to Booker at Judiciary Committee hearings.

It is a glance that every successful African American is familiar with. It says: I know what you went through to get here. I know the hoops you had to jump through, the hurdles you had to surmount, the obstacles thrown into your path. I know you saw less talented White colleagues rise smoothly and steadily to the top while you had to prove your excellence time and again. I know that you could never let your bosses and colleagues see you get angry, never let them see you sweat.

Booker told Jackson that he knew she was "so much more than your race and gender" but could not look at her without seeing his mother or his cousins, "one of them who had to come here to sit behind you … to have your back." He told Jackson that when he looked at her "I see my ancestors and yours. … Nobody's going to steal that joy."

The senator noted that Jackson's parents, despite the oppressive racial discrimination of their times, "didn't stop loving this country, even though this country didn't love them back." He quoted from the Langston Hughes poem, "Let America Be America Again." He spoke of the struggles of Irish and Chinese immigrants and members of the LGBTQ community, who also loved this country and had to demand that it love them in return. He recounted the life story of Harriet Tubman and told of how she looked up at the North Star as a harbinger of hope. "Today you're my star," he told Jackson. "You are my harbinger of hope."

The attacks from Republicans would continue, Booker said. "But don't worry, my sister. Don't worry. God has got you. And how do I know that?" Booker's voice cracked with emotion. "Because you're here. And I know what it's taken for you to sit in that seat."

Divine -- just reading what C. Booker said has me with tears in my eyes all over again. I am in many ways just as proud of Booker who has had ( in my book ) many a spot on extremely poignant rants. Cory is right -- no one could use such tawdry excuses to steal Judge Jackson's thunder and while a time or two I felt I saw her really tense up --- she held it soooo together. She made the Reps. party ( especially those with their super grilling ) look small and desperate. I hope she will get a share of Reps. votes just so it is bi-partisan, but I think she has this one anyway. I really have no words for Lindsey Graham. The man no longer knows who he is I don't think. The Reps. party went to hell in a hand-basket -- a very deplorable one and whatever that is negative that befalls them I say well, Karma has found you. Reap all you have sown and then some while I celebrate Jackson.

I'd love to see Thomas have to step down and Pres. Biden get to seat someone else -- with qualities quite similar to Judge Jackson's but that is likely hoping for too much. At least, I hope Thomas is made nervous and edgy thru the rest of the time he is on the court.

chevyboy Same here! It kept saying the site was down while they work on it. YAWN.

With All Eyes On Supreme Court Hearing, Democrats Quietly Confirm 8 Other Judges

This week's large batch of judicial confirmations includes the second openly lesbian woman to ever serve as a U.S. appeals court judge.

Mar. 25, 2022

This week on Capitol Hill, all eyes were on Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's high-profile and historic confirmation hearing.

But in the background, Senate Democrats were quietly advancing lots of President Joe Biden's other nominees to lifetime federal court seats — some of whom were also historic.

Democrats teed up and confirmed eight of Biden's court picks as Jackson's hearing was underway. That's a huge number of judges to process in a matter of days, and brings Biden's total number of confirmed judges to 56 — adding to his record of confirming more lifetime federal judges than decades of past presidents by this point in their terms.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) took a victory lap on the Senate floor on Thursday, though it was easy to miss with all the attention on the Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

"Yesterday we confirmed another six judges to important positions on the federal bench ― and all of them, I am happy to say, with bipartisan support," he said. "We have now confirmed 56 ― 56! ― judges under this Democratic Senate majority, and I thank my colleagues for their patience and for keeping the pace moving here on the floor last night."

One of the judicial nominees in this week's mix was Alison Nathan, 49, who will now sit on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Nathan has served as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York since 2011, and she previously served as associate White House counsel for President Barack Obama.

Nathan's confirmation makes her the second openly lesbian woman to ever serve on a U.S. appeals court. The first was Judge Beth Robinson, who was just confirmed in November to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.

The other Biden judicial nominees confirmed this week were all for U.S. district court seats, and reflected a diversity of backgrounds. They include Ruth Montenegro, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, was confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. John Chun, who was confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, is the second Asian American federal district court judge in the entire state. Victoria Calvert, now a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, is the second Black woman to ever serve on this court.

Judicial confirmations might seem like a dry subject. But federal judges typically remain in their seats for decades and long after the presidents who nominated them leave office, and their rulings affect millions of Americans across the country. This is why a president's federal judges are often considered his or her greatest legacy.

Biden has made it a top priority to bring diversity to the federal bench in terms of demographics like race and gender, but also in terms of professional backgrounds. His dozens of judicial nominees to date mark a huge departure from the typical white, male corporate lawyers who are almost always tapped for lifetime federal judgeships.

So far, Biden's court picks have included public defenders, voting rights lawyersand union organizers, in addition to historic firsts with Native Americans, Black women, LGBTQ nominees and Muslim Americans. Out of the 40 judges he confirmed by the end of 2021, 32 were women, 27 were people of color, 21 were women of color and 27 had professionally diverse backgrounds. Fifteen were former public defenders.

Rakim Brooks, president of the progressive judicial advocacy group Alliance for Justice, said this week's confirmed judges continue Biden's trend of making the nation's courts better reflect the people they serve.

"It's particularly notable how few members of the LGBTQ+ community currently serve on our courts," Brooks said in a statement. "We are fighting hard to change that and are confident the confirmation of Alison Nathan, like Beth Robinson before her, will blaze a path forward."

Just one of those silly reasons why Putin and Russia can seem attractive to some in the Reps. party. All that glitters is often green and folds into your wallet easily.