And we're back. And guess who has joined us?  The New Haven Fire Department. Frank Ricci, the firefighter who filed suit about racial discrimination before Sonia Sotomayor, is in the audience. This case has been used by Sonia haters to point to her reverse racism.

Just under half of the Senators still have their 1st Round of 30 minute questionning to go. We'll get to 8 more today.  Kill.  Me.

Texas Republican John Cornyn started off with the "Wise Latina" comments again.  She yet again stuck to her line: Her words failed her, the message is the same as what Sandra Day O'Connor and Samuel Alito meant when they made similar comments and she lets the rule of law guide her decision making.  Then we are on to abortion.

It's sort of surprising to me that nearly 10 Senators have questioned her and NO reference to gay marriage?

Moving on...

Then we get some fireworks from Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn. Parental advisory: Blatant racist comment ahead. He leads off with abortion questioning again. Did you know fetuses have heartbeats and dead people don't?  True.  Thanks Dr. Coburn. Then Coburn moves to guns.  Again. They move into a weird discussion about self-defense and use of guns in those instances.  She was a little vague to which Coburn said, harkening back to I Love Lucy "You'd have lots of 'splaining to do."

Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. Cybersecurity. Soft ball. Moving on. Minnesota's Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar (why 2 Republicans and 2 Democrats in a row is weird.  They are supposed to alternate).  She softballs, literally and figuratively, with Perry Mason references and TV references.  Jesus.  Thanks for that waste of my hour.

The air conditioning just went out.  Expect tempers to flare as the room fills with suffocating hot air.

Oh, and Talking Points Memo has live live blogging on the Soto hearings here .