EthnicMajority

(Charleston Post and Courier) Let's see, leading Hispanic actors on mainstream TV: There's Sofia Vergara's wacky, chess-playing trophy wife on "Modern Family," the conniving Eva Longoria of "Desperate Housewives" and supporting actors such as Adam Rodriguez, who plays a fingerprint and underwater recovery expert on "CSI Miami."

After that, the list thins considerably.

Stepping into that space is "The Latino List." The new documentary by Vanity Fair contributing photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders airs Wednesday and Thursday on HBO and HBO Latino and features interviews by award-winning broadcast journalist Maria Hinojosa with some of the nation's most successful Latinos. Hinojosa has worked at CNN, NPR and PBS, and elsewhere. A red-carpet screening was scheduled for Tuesday night in Miami Beach.

Longoria; Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor; rapper Armando Christian Perez, aka Pitbull; astronaut Jose Hernandez; and actress America Ferrera are just a few of the 15 who made the list. The interviews are compelling, funny and raw.

Full story…

(Daily Mail) Barack Obama is making his mark on the U.S. federal judiciary by pushing through an unprecedented diversification of the system.

Nearly three out of every four people the President has confirmed to the federal bench are women or minorities.

His efforts are unique as he is the first U.S. president who has not selected a majority of white males for lifetime judgeships.

More than 70 per cent of his confirmed judicial nominees during his first two years were ‘non-traditional,’ or non-white male nominees.

That far exceeds the percentages in the two-term administrations of Bill Clinton at 48.1 per cent and George W. Bush at 32.9 per cent.

‘It is an absolutely remarkable diversity achievement,’ said Sheldon Goldman, author of the book Picking Federal Judges.

Professor Goldman, of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is only counting judges once – even if they fit more than one category.

The White House has been touting its efforts to diversify the bench during Mr Obama's tenure.

The President won Senate confirmation of the first Latina to the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

And with the confirmation of Justice Elena Kagan he has put three women on the high court for the first time.

The Obama administration also nominated and won confirmation of the first openly gay man to a federal judgeship.

Full story…

Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court is imminently qualified and her credentials and experience are indisputable. And she is a Latino woman. This is the ultimate “two-fer” for Obama and the Democrats.

The right-wing Republicans were going to protest against any nominee further left than Antonin Scalia anyway, just to show their ever-shrinking base that the party is still alive. In the process, their opposition has irritated scores of women and Latinos. Not a good idea for a party struggling to convince the public that their tent is getting bigger, not smaller.

That’s bad enough, but how do you make the situation even worse? Start by claiming that Sotomayor is racist for her comments a few years ago that her background and experiences made her a better judge. This is basically the same thing every judge says during their confirmation hearing because it is reasonable and logical – except if your experiences include being a Latina and a woman.

It appears that the Republicans are still using the Karl Rove playbook – attack your opponent for your own weaknesses. I await step two from the playbook. Accuse Sotomayor of being: a) a terrorist, b) an illegal immigrant, c) unpatriotic, or d) all of the above.

EthnicMajority Politics page.