Archive | October, 2004

breaking news from the Borowitz Report. “As the days tick down until Afghanistan’s historic democratic election this Saturday, the fledgling democracy took an important step forward today, receiving its first shipment of negative political ads from the U.S. The commercials, full of lacerating personal attacks and half-truths about Afghan president Hamid Karzai and his opponents, […]

Chris at Politics Blog asks this, while discussing the Colorado initiative to allocate Colorado’s presidential electors proportionally, rather than on a winner-takes-all basis. The post discusses (though doesn’t purport to squarely answer) some potential legal challenges; definitely worth keeping in mind, since it could be a huge problem if the election ends up being very […]

One of the interesting things about the very controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is that lots of people criticize it but few offer any alternatives. FISA, as it is known for short, is the set of laws that regulates most evidence collection within the United States in national security and terrorism cases. Whenever you hear […]

In Louisiana, a man by the name of Barbette Williams kidnapped and tried to murder a 6-year-old boy. The kidnapping ended with a 12-hour standoff in which Williams barricaded himself in a house and shot at several officers. Williams was charged with kidnapping and attempted murder and went to trial, where his defense attorney argued […]

A sign that said Donut holes 2 for 25 cents 6 for $1.00 But fortunately the cafeteria was not in the Economics Department. By the way, after I mentioned this to the people behind the counter, they changed the sign — it was now 2 for 30 cents, 7 for $1.00. That makes somewhat more […]

An article in today’s Washington Post raises the question of whether Ricky Williams of the Miami Dolphins will file bankruptcy. Under current law the answer is probably yest. Williams, for non-sports fans, was a star running back for the Miami Dolphins who suddenly retired before the beginning of this season, saying that he doesn’t want […]

This is the letter that David Bernstein referred to in his Hostile Environment Blowback post below, and it explains why the Department’s Office for Civil Rights thought the professor’s e-mail about the student’s anti-gay comments constituted racial and sexual discrimination and harassment. The always excellent UCLA Law Library has kindly gotten a copy of the […]

I am a big fan of FactCheck.org. I think they do solid work analyzing the veracity of political claims and ads. I also think that their analysis of the debates has been valuable and even-handed. In their analysis of last night’s vice-presidential debate, however, I think FactCheck.org got one wrong. On the issue of the […]

It’s too early to tell if this story will become a reality, but if it does it will be remarkable:   Most of the alleged al Qaeda and Taliban inmates at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are likely to be freed or sent to their home countries for further investigation because many pose […]

Some bloggers are disappointed or angry that the outside team investigating the CBS story that used the forged Bush Guard documents will not report until after the November election. I disagree. If I were at CBS, I would do the same thing–wait until after the election for the post mortem. It IS a distraction to […]

In the words of the person who noticed this, “What a difference a [top-level domain] makes”: VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: Well, the reason they keep mentioning Halliburton is because they’re trying to throw up a smoke screen. They know the charges are false. They know if you go, for example, to factcheck.com, an independent website sponsored […]

According to this source, 32% of Americans questioned in a recent poll believe that Saddam Hussein personally planned the 9/11 attacks. And according to this source, 34% of Americans questioned in a recent poll believe in UFOs. All of which leads me to wonder: are these the same people?

Tony Mauro looks into the case of Baker Botts in this interesting article.

This is great news for Internet privacy. More here and here. Thanks again to Howard for the heads up.

In an e-mail published over at Velvel on National Affairs, Judge Richard Posner writes: The problem is that we no longer have a culture of writing. Writing is now a specialty. So judges, politicians, businessmen, lawyers–and now it seems law professors–increasingly hire ghostwriters (whether they’re called ghostwriters, law clerks, or research assistants) as specialists in […]