Posted on 06/05/2009 6:42:26 AM PDT by Callahan
...We don't know what the exact grade was, as far as I've seen, but an award-winning history professor -- K.C. Johnson of Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center -- who read it at my request concluded that "the thesis would probably receive an A/A minus or an A minus." (Johnson and I co-authored a 2007 book on the Duke lacrosse rape fraud.)
Here is Johnson's detailed assessment:
There are also a few jarring elements that contrast to the pedagogical approach. First, I'm curious as to when Sotomayor ceased being a Puerto Rican nationalist who favors independence -- as she says she does in the preface. (The position, as she points out in the thesis, had received 0.6 percent in a 1967 referendum, the most recent such vote before she wrote the thesis.) I don't know that I've seen it reported anywhere that she favored Puerto Rican independence, which has always been very much a fringe position....
Second, her unwillingness to call the Congress the U.S. Congress is bizarre -- in the thesis, it's always referred to as either the 'North American Congress' or the 'mainland Congress.' I guess by the language of her thesis, it should be said that she's seeking an appointment to the North American Supreme Court, subject to advice and consent of the North American Senate. This kind of rhetoric was very trendy, and not uncommon, among the Latin Americanist fringe of the academy.
Third, she had an odd habit of inserting (sic) into quotes not to identify an error but because she disagreed with the (usually innocuous) content of the quotes.
Fourth, she asserted that Muñoz Marín's economic program, called Operation Bootstrap, failed primarily because Puerto Ricans continued to think of themselves as colonials. This, like the reference to the US Congress as the 'North American' Congress, was 1970s-trendy dependency theory rhetoric, but was wholly unsupported by the evidence that she presented in the thesis (and, indeed, by virtually any evidence that has appeared since that time).
I'd love to be the first Senator to ask this wise Latina woman her thoughts on being appointed to the "North American Supreme Court."
Miss “Wise Latina” sounds every bit as arrogant as Millstone himself.
Not many comments yet. Are we all getting numb?
This chica sounds perfect for the South American Supreme Court.
I’m Puerto Rican and I am ashamed of this woman being put on the Supreme Court. She’s a kook...which of course, makes her perfect for 0bambi’s choice.
Wow we agree on something.
Seems like some awfully contradictory thinking.
I was a wrestler in high school and most of my team mates were Puerto Rican. We were too busy kicking eachother’s asses to talk much history, but they all called the U.S. Congress the the U.S. Congress. Guess they weren’t as enlightened as El Sabio Latina En El Mundo
Of course, none of them were WISE Latina Women!
I have no problem with Puerto Rican independence.
Cut the moochers loose and let them fend for themselves.
The problem is that every time they vote on it they overwhelmingly vote to remain an American possession.
They don’t want to lose out on the wealth redistribution they get from taxpayers in the 50 states.
She’d be better suited as Hugo Chavez’ right-hand man.
>Are we all getting numb?<
Possibly.
When it gets really ugly some of us might not even notice.
Sometimes, I feel like they are “conditioning” us for future atrocities.
I don’t have a p[roblem with PR independence. If they wish to, they can vote themselves out of the Union. No problem and we will give them help in setting up their new country.
But of course, I am from Texas...
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