Friedman via NYT: "Speaking of Katrina, Sumiko Tan, a columnist for the Sunday edition of The Straits Times in Singapore, wrote: 'We were shocked at what we saw. Death and destruction from natural disaster is par for the course. But the pictures of dead people left uncollected on the streets, armed looters ransacking shops, survivors desperate to be rescued, racial divisions - these were truly out of sync with what we'd imagined the land of the free to be, even if we had encountered homelessness and violence on visits there. ... If America becomes so unglued when bad things happen in its own backyard, how can it fulfill its role as leader of the world?'
Janadas Devan, a Straits Times columnist, tried to explain to his Asian readers how the U.S. is changing. 'Today's conservatives,' he wrote, 'differ in one crucial aspect from yesterday's conservatives: the latter believed in small government, but believed, too, that a country ought to pay for all the government that it needed.
'The former believe in no government, and therefore conclude that there is no need for a country to pay for even the government that it does have. ... [But] it is not only government that doesn't show up when government is starved of resources and leached of all its meaning. Community doesn't show up either, sacrifice doesn't show up, pulling together doesn't show up, 'we're all in this together' doesn't show up.'"
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Politicos call for music copyright reform
via CNET News.com: "WASHINGTON--Legal music-download services won't be able to compete fully with their free- and illegal-download counterparts until copyright law changes, a Virginia congressman said Tuesday.
'The illegal services offer all of the songs, and the legal services don't, and therein lies the crux of the problem,' Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, said in a speech at the Future of Music Policy Summit here.
The remedy, he said, lies in a congressional rewrite of portions of copyright law that govern licensing and royalty fees and make it cumbersome for legal download services to add material to their inventories. Boucher said he hopes his committee will have a new bill written and reported to the U.S. House of Representatives by the end of this congressional term in November. (The congressman has also been a vocal critic of other pieces of digital copyright law.)
The Senate Judiciary Committee has also been exploring how to streamline and simplify the royalty system in a way that 'balances the competing interests of artists and publishers' but 'doesn't continue to lead to legal challenges,' Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told summit attendees in a noon speech.
Any changes to copyright law must be 'technology neutral,' she emphasized. 'The government needs to have a light touch,' she said, so as 'not to unintentionally slow down the process of innovation.'"
'The illegal services offer all of the songs, and the legal services don't, and therein lies the crux of the problem,' Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, said in a speech at the Future of Music Policy Summit here.
The remedy, he said, lies in a congressional rewrite of portions of copyright law that govern licensing and royalty fees and make it cumbersome for legal download services to add material to their inventories. Boucher said he hopes his committee will have a new bill written and reported to the U.S. House of Representatives by the end of this congressional term in November. (The congressman has also been a vocal critic of other pieces of digital copyright law.)
The Senate Judiciary Committee has also been exploring how to streamline and simplify the royalty system in a way that 'balances the competing interests of artists and publishers' but 'doesn't continue to lead to legal challenges,' Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told summit attendees in a noon speech.
Any changes to copyright law must be 'technology neutral,' she emphasized. 'The government needs to have a light touch,' she said, so as 'not to unintentionally slow down the process of innovation.'"
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
End of the Bush Era
EJ Dionne via washpost.com: "If Bush had understood that his central task was to forge national unity, as he seemed to shortly after Sept. 11, the country would never have become so polarized. Instead, Bush put patriotism to the service of narrowly ideological policies and an extreme partisanship. He pushed for more tax cuts for his wealthiest supporters and shamelessly used relatively modest details in the bill creating a Department of Homeland Security as partisan cudgels in the 2002 elections.
He invoked our national anger over terrorism to win support for a war in Iraq. But he failed to pay heed to those who warned that the United States would need many more troops and careful planning to see the job through. The president assumed things would turn out fine, on the basis of wildly optimistic assumptions. Careful policymaking and thinking through potential flaws in your approach are not his administration's strong suits.
And so the Bush Era ended definitively on Sept. 2, the day Bush first toured the Gulf Coast States after Hurricane Katrina."
He invoked our national anger over terrorism to win support for a war in Iraq. But he failed to pay heed to those who warned that the United States would need many more troops and careful planning to see the job through. The president assumed things would turn out fine, on the basis of wildly optimistic assumptions. Careful policymaking and thinking through potential flaws in your approach are not his administration's strong suits.
And so the Bush Era ended definitively on Sept. 2, the day Bush first toured the Gulf Coast States after Hurricane Katrina."
Feds Plan Patent Reform
via CNET News.com: "When Gordon Gould was a graduate student at Columbia University in 1957, he sketched out the concept of a concentrated beam of light amplified in a gas-filled chamber and coined the term 'laser' to describe it.
But Gould waited to seek a patent on his discovery, believing incorrectly that a working prototype was necessary. Eventually, two other researchers were awarded the basic patents instead.
After a decades-long legal tussle, Gould finally reveled in victory when a federal court ruled that the patent application it had approved did not anticipate the common uses of lasers. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office then granted Gould lucrative rights to the invention, in part because as a graduate student he had his original research notebooks date-stamped and notarized.
The legal standard that was applied awards patents to the person who invented a concept first, and it has long been a unique feature of the U.S. patent system. This year, however, Congress is about to consider a controversial proposal from Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, that would grant a patent to the first person to submit the paperwork
--a standard that's common outside the United States."
But Gould waited to seek a patent on his discovery, believing incorrectly that a working prototype was necessary. Eventually, two other researchers were awarded the basic patents instead.
After a decades-long legal tussle, Gould finally reveled in victory when a federal court ruled that the patent application it had approved did not anticipate the common uses of lasers. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office then granted Gould lucrative rights to the invention, in part because as a graduate student he had his original research notebooks date-stamped and notarized.
The legal standard that was applied awards patents to the person who invented a concept first, and it has long been a unique feature of the U.S. patent system. This year, however, Congress is about to consider a controversial proposal from Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, that would grant a patent to the first person to submit the paperwork
--a standard that's common outside the United States."
Friday, September 09, 2005
Krugman: Point Those Fingers
via NYT: "It might make sense to hold off on the criticism if this were the first big disaster on Mr. Bush's watch, or if the chain of mistakes in handling Hurricane Katrina were out of character. But even with the most generous possible assessment, this is the administration's second big policy disaster, after Iraq. And the chain of mistakes was perfectly in character - there are striking parallels between the errors the administration made in Iraq and the errors it made last week.
In Iraq, the administration displayed a combination of paralysis and denial after the fall of Baghdad, as uncontrolled looting destroyed much of Iraq's infrastructure.
The same deer-in-the-headlights immobility prevailed as Katrina approached and struck the Gulf Coast. The storm gave plenty of warning. By the afternoon of Monday, Aug. 29, the flooding of New Orleans was well under way - city officials publicly confirmed a breach in the 17th Street Canal at 2 p.m. Yet on Tuesday federal officials were still playing down the problem, and large-scale federal aid didn't arrive until last Friday.
In Iraq the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran the country during the crucial first year after Saddam's fall - the period when an effective government might have forestalled the nascent insurgency - was staffed on the basis of ideological correctness and personal connections rather than qualifications. At one point Ari Fleischer's brother was in charge of private-sector development.
The administration followed the same principles in staffing FEMA. The agency had become a highly professional organization during the Clinton years, but under Mr. Bush it reverted to its former status as a 'turkey farm,' a source of patronage jobs.
As Bloomberg News puts it, the agency's 'upper ranks are mostly staffed with people who share two traits: loyalty to President George W. Bush and little or no background in emergency management"
In Iraq, the administration displayed a combination of paralysis and denial after the fall of Baghdad, as uncontrolled looting destroyed much of Iraq's infrastructure.
The same deer-in-the-headlights immobility prevailed as Katrina approached and struck the Gulf Coast. The storm gave plenty of warning. By the afternoon of Monday, Aug. 29, the flooding of New Orleans was well under way - city officials publicly confirmed a breach in the 17th Street Canal at 2 p.m. Yet on Tuesday federal officials were still playing down the problem, and large-scale federal aid didn't arrive until last Friday.
In Iraq the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran the country during the crucial first year after Saddam's fall - the period when an effective government might have forestalled the nascent insurgency - was staffed on the basis of ideological correctness and personal connections rather than qualifications. At one point Ari Fleischer's brother was in charge of private-sector development.
The administration followed the same principles in staffing FEMA. The agency had become a highly professional organization during the Clinton years, but under Mr. Bush it reverted to its former status as a 'turkey farm,' a source of patronage jobs.
As Bloomberg News puts it, the agency's 'upper ranks are mostly staffed with people who share two traits: loyalty to President George W. Bush and little or no background in emergency management"
Advance Men in Charge
via New York Times: "It's not really all that surprising that the officials who run FEMA are stressing that all-important emergency response function: the public relations campaign. As it turns out, that's all they really have experience at doing.
Michael Brown was made the director after he was asked to resign from the International Arabian Horse Association, and the other top officials at FEMA don't exactly have impressive résumés in emergency management either. The Chicago Tribune reported on Wednesday that neither the acting deputy director, Patrick Rhode, nor the acting deputy chief of staff, Brooks Altshuler, came to FEMA with any previous experience in disaster management. Ditto for Scott Morris, the third in command until May.
Mr. Altshuler and Mr. Rhode had worked in the White House's Office of National Advance Operations. Those are the people who decide where the president will stand on stage and which loyal supporters will be permitted into the audience - and how many firefighters will be diverted from rescue duty to surround the president as he patrols the New Orleans airport trying to look busy. Mr. Morris was a press handler with the Bush presidential campaign. Previously, he worked for the company that produced Bush campaign commercials.
* * *
Surely there are loyal Republicans among the 50 directors of state emergency services. But President Bush chose to make FEMA a dumping ground for unqualified cronies - a sure sign that he wanted to hasten the degradation of an agency that conservative Republicans have long considered an evil of big government. Katrina has proved that federal disaster help is vital, and that Mr. Brown and his team of advance men can't do the job. What America needs are federal disaster relief people who actually know something about disaster relief."
Michael Brown was made the director after he was asked to resign from the International Arabian Horse Association, and the other top officials at FEMA don't exactly have impressive résumés in emergency management either. The Chicago Tribune reported on Wednesday that neither the acting deputy director, Patrick Rhode, nor the acting deputy chief of staff, Brooks Altshuler, came to FEMA with any previous experience in disaster management. Ditto for Scott Morris, the third in command until May.
Mr. Altshuler and Mr. Rhode had worked in the White House's Office of National Advance Operations. Those are the people who decide where the president will stand on stage and which loyal supporters will be permitted into the audience - and how many firefighters will be diverted from rescue duty to surround the president as he patrols the New Orleans airport trying to look busy. Mr. Morris was a press handler with the Bush presidential campaign. Previously, he worked for the company that produced Bush campaign commercials.
* * *
Surely there are loyal Republicans among the 50 directors of state emergency services. But President Bush chose to make FEMA a dumping ground for unqualified cronies - a sure sign that he wanted to hasten the degradation of an agency that conservative Republicans have long considered an evil of big government. Katrina has proved that federal disaster help is vital, and that Mr. Brown and his team of advance men can't do the job. What America needs are federal disaster relief people who actually know something about disaster relief."
A Legal System in Shambles
via New York Times: "Along with the destruction of homes, neighborhoods and lives, Hurricane Katrina decimated the legal system of the New Orleans region.
More than a third of the state's lawyers have lost their offices, some for good. Most computer records will be saved. Many other records will be lost forever. Some local courthouses have been flooded, imperiling a vast universe of files, records and documents. Court proceedings from divorces to murder trials, to corporate litigation, to custody cases will be indefinitely halted and when proceedings resume lawyers will face prodigious - if not insurmountable - obstacles in finding witnesses and principals and in recovering evidence.
It is an implosion of the legal network not seen since disasters like the Chicago fire of 1871 or the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, events in times so much simpler as to be useless in making much sense of this one.
* * *
'New things come up every day. I think this storm is going to produce more legal issues and complications than anyone has ever imagined.'"
More than a third of the state's lawyers have lost their offices, some for good. Most computer records will be saved. Many other records will be lost forever. Some local courthouses have been flooded, imperiling a vast universe of files, records and documents. Court proceedings from divorces to murder trials, to corporate litigation, to custody cases will be indefinitely halted and when proceedings resume lawyers will face prodigious - if not insurmountable - obstacles in finding witnesses and principals and in recovering evidence.
It is an implosion of the legal network not seen since disasters like the Chicago fire of 1871 or the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, events in times so much simpler as to be useless in making much sense of this one.
* * *
'New things come up every day. I think this storm is going to produce more legal issues and complications than anyone has ever imagined.'"
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Kick procrastination: Run a dash
via 43 Folders: "Procrastination can drive most of us into a spiral of shame that’s as mundane as it is painfully personal. We know what we should be doing, but some invisible hang-up keeps us on the line. Unfortunately, the guaranteed consequence of procrastination is growth in the scale of the task you’ve been putting off—as well as the anxiety that it creates. All the time you’re putting something off, your problem’s getting bigger—both in reality and in your head, where your colorful imagination is liable to turn even the most trivial item into an unsolvable juggernaut that threatens to overwhelm you. And that means extra stress, more procrastination, and the music goes round.
My favorite tonic for procrastination—which I have mentioned in passing previously—is what I call a dash, which is simply a short burst of focused activity during which you force yourself to do nothing but work on the procrastinated item for a very short period of time—perhaps as little as just one minute. By breaking a few tiny pebbles off of your perceived monolith, you end up psyching yourself out of your stupor, as well as making much-needed progress on your overdue project. Neat, huh?"
My favorite tonic for procrastination—which I have mentioned in passing previously—is what I call a dash, which is simply a short burst of focused activity during which you force yourself to do nothing but work on the procrastinated item for a very short period of time—perhaps as little as just one minute. By breaking a few tiny pebbles off of your perceived monolith, you end up psyching yourself out of your stupor, as well as making much-needed progress on your overdue project. Neat, huh?"
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
The post-hurricane speech Bush won't deliver
via SFGate: "My fellow Americans: First, I want to apologize to you, and particularly to the citizens of Mississippi and Louisiana, for my administration's failure to prepare for Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. I apologize for our excruciating slowness in getting life-supporting essentials -- food, clean water and medicine -- to the flood victims in New Orleans. Sadly, I realize that the federal government's inexcusable delay of at least two days in providing these essential items caused many unnecessary deaths, and unnecessarily prolonged the agony for thousands of mostly poor, black citizens of the United States, who were barely surviving in disgusting conditions. For that I am truly sorry."
Screed Against Michael Brown
via The Irish Trojan's blog: "If the braintrust running this country really thought that 'the water would drain away fairly quickly' after a direct hit on New Orleans from a major hurricane, then my God, our country is run by the most absolutely incompetent bunch of nitwits imaginable. The city is below sea level. Once it floods, there is nowhere for the water to 'drain away' to! Everyone knows this!!!"
Flying Solo: A Survival Guide for the Solo and Small Firm Lawyer
via abanet.com: "“This (book) covers the waterfront of issues faced daily by solo practitioners. Even if you have one or more of the earlier editions, you will find fresh ideas and valuable insights for your practice and your life as a solo. It is an essential addition to your library.”James E. Brill, Solo Lawyer, Houston, Texas"
Laying a Foundation to Impeach a Witness at Deposition
South Carolina Trial Law Blog: "Evan Schaeffer recently wrote a post on How to Start a Deposition at his Illinois Trial Practice Weblog. It’s a good post for young lawyers on how to get started. That reminded me of the opening questions that I use to lock a witness down in the event that the witness needs to be impeached at trial:"
Finding Where The Work Is
via abanet.com: "Although these are important sources of work, it is the rare attorney who can count on these sources of work alone to fill out an annual expectation. This means that we have to go find work. Searching for, qualifying, and closing new or additional business is as important to building a successful practice as your numbers this year for annual hours worked, billed and realized. So, how do we do that?"
Practicing Your Passion
via ABA's GP|Solo Magazine - July/August 2005: "If you want to find passion in your law practice but seem to be having difficulty, take some quiet time and make a list of such cultural messages. Although it may be challenging to identify the many “givens” in your life, it is well worth the effort. This exercise will get you ready for a true transformation in your work: Instead of responding reflexively to situations, you can consciously choose to act—or not act. Once you’re able to do that, you will be able to choose your own culture.
The possibilities are, if not endless, much more varied than most lawyers imagine. See the sidebar “Four Success Stories” on page 13 for some examples of how this can be done. Every law practice can be personalized so that the heart, as well as the head, is satisfied and more at peace."
The possibilities are, if not endless, much more varied than most lawyers imagine. See the sidebar “Four Success Stories” on page 13 for some examples of how this can be done. Every law practice can be personalized so that the heart, as well as the head, is satisfied and more at peace."
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Music Licensing Reform
via the Copyright Office: Statement of Marybeth Peters, The Register of Copyrights before the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, Committee on the Judiciary, United States House of Representatives, 109th Congress, 1st Session, June 21, 2005.
Site offers open-source clearinghouse
via CNET News.com: "Start-up SourceLabs has launched a Web site that draws on the latest collaboration and syndication tools to create a sort of owner's manual for open-source software.
Called Swik, the site combines a search engine, a wiki for posting documentation and reviews, and information-sharing tools that use Really Simple Syndication, or RSS. The site was launched Wednesday.
Swik is aimed at people, notably software developers, who seek a listing of open-source products and a communications hub to help navigate through the tens of thousands of projects out there."
Called Swik, the site combines a search engine, a wiki for posting documentation and reviews, and information-sharing tools that use Really Simple Syndication, or RSS. The site was launched Wednesday.
Swik is aimed at people, notably software developers, who seek a listing of open-source products and a communications hub to help navigate through the tens of thousands of projects out there."
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Just How Much Did VCs Pocket On Google?
via Burnham's Beat: "As it currently stands, both Kleiner and Sequoia have already distributed the vast majority of their stakes to their LPs. Thanks to the wonder of the SEC's Form 4, it's possible to go back and calculate exactly how much money the firms have made for their LPs to date. It's also possible to see how much the individual VCs have received (John Doerr and Mike Moritz) and even to make a realtively precise guess at the specific carried interests that each VC has in their respective fund.
In the case of Kleiner, they made their first big distribution of shares to LPs on 11/17/04 when they distributed about 5.7M shares, about a quarter of their total stake, at $172.5 a share which equates to about $983M. They made another distribution on 2/4 of 11.4M shares, about 54% of their stake, at $203.66 per share for a cool $2.3BN. On 5/2/04, they made another distribution of 1.1M shares worth $247M. In total, to date they have distributed shares worth $3.549BN. They still have another 2.6M shares worth $752M as of yesterday's close, so the total value of their stake is $4.3BN which represents a 344X return on their investment of $12.5M ... not too shabby."
Update.
In the case of Kleiner, they made their first big distribution of shares to LPs on 11/17/04 when they distributed about 5.7M shares, about a quarter of their total stake, at $172.5 a share which equates to about $983M. They made another distribution on 2/4 of 11.4M shares, about 54% of their stake, at $203.66 per share for a cool $2.3BN. On 5/2/04, they made another distribution of 1.1M shares worth $247M. In total, to date they have distributed shares worth $3.549BN. They still have another 2.6M shares worth $752M as of yesterday's close, so the total value of their stake is $4.3BN which represents a 344X return on their investment of $12.5M ... not too shabby."
Update.
Mixing open source and business
via CNet News Blog: "Optaros is different than most consulting and systems integration outfits in that the venture-backed firm builds custom applications using open-source software.
That requires the company, which launched at the beginning of this year, to have explicit intellectual property policies and clear rules of engagement regarding open source projects, said company vice president Stephen Walli, who authored the policy, in a blog posting on Wednesday."
That requires the company, which launched at the beginning of this year, to have explicit intellectual property policies and clear rules of engagement regarding open source projects, said company vice president Stephen Walli, who authored the policy, in a blog posting on Wednesday."
David Foster Wallace - Commencement Speech at Kenyon University
via marginalia: "As I'm sure you guys know by now, it is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive, instead of getting hypnotized by the constant monologue inside your own head (may be happening right now). Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about quote the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.
This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.
And I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out. That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense. Let's get concrete. The plain fact is that you graduating seniors do not yet have any clue what 'day in day out' really means. There happen to be whole, large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. One such part involves boredom, routine, and petty frustration. The parents and older folks here will know "
This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.
And I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out. That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense. Let's get concrete. The plain fact is that you graduating seniors do not yet have any clue what 'day in day out' really means. There happen to be whole, large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. One such part involves boredom, routine, and petty frustration. The parents and older folks here will know "
Google sued over "click fraud" in Web ads
via Reuters.co.uk: "SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A seller of online marketing tools said on Wednesday it sued Google Inc., charging that the Web search giant has failed to protect users of its advertising program from 'click fraud,' costing them at least $5 million.
Click Defense Inc. filed its lawsuit, which also seeks class action status, on June 24 in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California."
Click Defense Inc. filed its lawsuit, which also seeks class action status, on June 24 in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California."
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Support The Troops
via Salon.com : "George W. Bush said Tuesday night that Americans should support the troops by flying a flag on the Fourth of July or lending a hand to the families of soldiers serving in Iraq. We've got another idea: How about making a responsible plan for taking care of injured soldiers when they come home?
That's the moral obligation of the administration that sent them to war in the first place, and it's not doing a very good job of it. Just before the president spoke Tuesday, his administration acknowledged that it's short on money for providing medical care to veterans because it vastly underestimated the number of soldiers who would need it.
According to today's Washington Post, the Department of Veteran Affairs predicted that just 23,533 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan would need medical treatment this fiscal year. A more realistic projection? The VA now says the number is more likely to be 103,000.
We're not so hot at math, but the administration's initial projection was off by, what, a factor of four? How could they have gotten it so wrong? VA Secretary Jim Nicholson told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Tuesday that the initial estimate was based on data from 2002, which would explain a lot. Back then, Dick Cheney was telling Americans that their soldiers would be 'greeted as liberators' in Iraq, and Donald Rumsfeld was telling the soldiers themselves that the war 'could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.'"
That's the moral obligation of the administration that sent them to war in the first place, and it's not doing a very good job of it. Just before the president spoke Tuesday, his administration acknowledged that it's short on money for providing medical care to veterans because it vastly underestimated the number of soldiers who would need it.
According to today's Washington Post, the Department of Veteran Affairs predicted that just 23,533 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan would need medical treatment this fiscal year. A more realistic projection? The VA now says the number is more likely to be 103,000.
We're not so hot at math, but the administration's initial projection was off by, what, a factor of four? How could they have gotten it so wrong? VA Secretary Jim Nicholson told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Tuesday that the initial estimate was based on data from 2002, which would explain a lot. Back then, Dick Cheney was telling Americans that their soldiers would be 'greeted as liberators' in Iraq, and Donald Rumsfeld was telling the soldiers themselves that the war 'could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.'"
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Hoops in the MSL?
First rate suggestion via Celtic Quick News comments:
Not bad. But a couple things: First, Boston equals bad idea jeans, they already have a local team and people will just get confused with the basketball brand, and second, the wage structure, centralized contracts issues would likely make it difficult for the club to be a true feeder. But as a scheme to push the brand in North America, introduce the kids to the glorious and noble history and traditions of the club, I say solid idea.
Now, who has any money?
"People have talked for the last 10 years about two things - breaking into emerging markets and developing a feeder club(s). Now just this season a new team has started to play in the American MLS called Real Chivas (the nickname of a team from Guadlajara, Mexico) [actually he's mixing up the 2 separate expansion teams, but whatevs, Ed.], they based themselves in LA and tried to market themselves towards the MLS growing Latino fanbase. They are now attracting in the region of 27,000 to each game.
So the idea is Celtic buy an MLS franchise, base it in a city with a large Irish immigrant population (such as Boston), kit them out in the Hoops and use them as a feeder team. There would be all sorts of possibilities."
Not bad. But a couple things: First, Boston equals bad idea jeans, they already have a local team and people will just get confused with the basketball brand, and second, the wage structure, centralized contracts issues would likely make it difficult for the club to be a true feeder. But as a scheme to push the brand in North America, introduce the kids to the glorious and noble history and traditions of the club, I say solid idea.
Now, who has any money?
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Patent absurdity
via Guardian: "If patent law had been applied to novels in the 1880s, great books would not have been written. If the EU applies it to software, every computer user will be restricted, says Richard Stallman "
Friday, June 17, 2005
The Military Industrial Congress
via Washington Post: "Rep. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham, a Vietnam War hero and 'top gun' fighter pilot, serves on the House subcommittee that appropriates money for the nation's defense. The California Republican also lives on a yacht berthed on the Potomac that is owned by the president of a local defense firm whose contracts Cunningham has supported."
Thursday, June 16, 2005
The Latest Downing Street Memos
via The Nation: "A March 8, 2002, options paper prepared by Blair's national security aides noted that Iraq's nuclear weapons program was 'effectively frozen,' its missile program 'severely restricted,' and its chemical and biological weapons programs 'hindered.' Saddam Hussein, it reported, 'has not succeeded in seriously threatening his neighbors.' This paper also said the intelligence on Iraq's supposed WMD program was 'poor.' It noted that there was no 'recent evidence' of Iraqi ties to al Qaeda.
All of this contradicts what Bush told Americans before the invasion of Iraq. He and his aides claimed that Iraq had reconstituted its nuclear weapons program, that Hussein was producing and stockpiling biological and chemical weapons, that Baghdad was in cahoots with al Qaeda, and that the intelligence obtained by the United States and other governments (presumably including the Brits) left 'no doubt' that Iraq posed a direct WMD threat to the United States.
The British memos are further evidence that Bush overstated the main reasons for the war. They also show that his key line of defense is bunk. When confronted with questions about the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Bush and his allies have consistently pointed to bad intelligence. But the previously released Downing Street memos and the new ones indicate that the Brits--who had access to the prewar intelligence--saw that the WMD case (based on that intelligence) was, as Jack Straw observed, weak. One might ask, why did they have such a different take than the one Bush shared with the public?"
All of this contradicts what Bush told Americans before the invasion of Iraq. He and his aides claimed that Iraq had reconstituted its nuclear weapons program, that Hussein was producing and stockpiling biological and chemical weapons, that Baghdad was in cahoots with al Qaeda, and that the intelligence obtained by the United States and other governments (presumably including the Brits) left 'no doubt' that Iraq posed a direct WMD threat to the United States.
The British memos are further evidence that Bush overstated the main reasons for the war. They also show that his key line of defense is bunk. When confronted with questions about the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Bush and his allies have consistently pointed to bad intelligence. But the previously released Downing Street memos and the new ones indicate that the Brits--who had access to the prewar intelligence--saw that the WMD case (based on that intelligence) was, as Jack Straw observed, weak. One might ask, why did they have such a different take than the one Bush shared with the public?"
Gaggle Got Ya, Scott?
via First Draft: "Q Yes. Is there any idea how long a last throe lasts for?
MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Steve."
MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Steve."
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
The Post-Mortem Post-Mortem
via Salon : "The results of Terri Schiavo's autopsy are in, and they make one Senate Majority Leader look very foolish. According to Pinellas-Pasco, Florida medical examiner Jon Thogmartin, Schiavo's brain had suffered massive and irreversible damage; it 'weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain.' Thogmartin also refuted assertions from Shiavo's parents and some members of the GOP that Schiavo could have recovered: 'This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons.' But the kicker for those who tuned in to the footage of Schiavo seeming to follow the movement of helium balloons with her eyes is that the autopsy results show that 'the vision centers of her brain were dead.' In other words, Schiavo was blind."
Protecting Soft IP
via
electronic design: "Software-only solutions have been the norm, but the more-available hardware-based encryption is gaining in stature. It addresses problems that software can't solve alone.
Keep in mind that hardware-based security actually pinpoints two parts of the puzzle. The first involves secure storage and manipulation of keys needed for encryption on which authentication is based. The second is hardware acceleration required to perform the necessary encryption and decryption in a reasonable amount of time.
A number of different products are available. Atmel's Secure Memory devices store small amounts of information (typically only the keys themselves) in an EEPROM and perform password and authentication protection. M-Systems' DiskOnKey and DiskOnChip implement security to protect flash memory that may contain applications and data. Going even further is Cirrus Logic's ARM9 series of microcontrollers. Its security on-chip uses the Maverick Key memory and the MaverickCrunch encryption engine."
electronic design: "Software-only solutions have been the norm, but the more-available hardware-based encryption is gaining in stature. It addresses problems that software can't solve alone.
Keep in mind that hardware-based security actually pinpoints two parts of the puzzle. The first involves secure storage and manipulation of keys needed for encryption on which authentication is based. The second is hardware acceleration required to perform the necessary encryption and decryption in a reasonable amount of time.
A number of different products are available. Atmel's Secure Memory devices store small amounts of information (typically only the keys themselves) in an EEPROM and perform password and authentication protection. M-Systems' DiskOnKey and DiskOnChip implement security to protect flash memory that may contain applications and data. Going even further is Cirrus Logic's ARM9 series of microcontrollers. Its security on-chip uses the Maverick Key memory and the MaverickCrunch encryption engine."
Change or Die by Alan Deutschman
via Fast Company: "What if you were given that choice? For real. What if it weren't just the hyperbolic rhetoric that conflates corporate performance with life and death? Not the overblown exhortations of a rabid boss, or a slick motivational speaker, or a self-dramatizing CEO. We're talking actual life or death now. Your own life or death. What if a well-informed, trusted authority figure said you had to make difficult and enduring changes in the way you think and act? If you didn't, your time would end soon -- a lot sooner than it had to. Could you change when change really mattered? When it mattered most?
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* Newsletters
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* FASTCOMPANY.COM SPONSORED LINKS
* License Symantec Software Today - Fast and Easy!
Symantec's Value Program makes it easy to enjoy a streamlined pricing structure for your company's ...
* Make your customers (and your CFO) happy
Concerto Software contact center solutions help you deliver a superior experience across multiple c...
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Get results with Mamma Classifieds Pay Per Click. Be in the Top Three on Mamma.com, plus on Coperni...
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You're probably deluding yourself.
You wouldn"
Thursday, June 09, 2005
A Handful of Timely Tips and Tricks
About Money:
Productivity:
The Internets:
Digital Photography:
Lifehacks
Last week I was invited to speak to a group of 200 students at Duke University. The organizers gave me pretty much free rein in picking my topic, so I decided to talk about this:
How to make a million dollars is: a) something students are interested in, and b) something I am qualified to talk about. And the talk went really well. So well, in fact, that I have received requests for copies of the presentation.
I did not make a tape, so what I have done here is lay the talk out in writing for you to read at your leisure. I hope that it is helpful to you, and and that it shows you how to begin walking down the path to wealth.
Let's get started on making your first million dollars...
Productivity:
Once people got organized and they can handle tasks well, usually they want more out of their time. They want to accomplish more things. When I present an introduction on time management in the organization I am working for, I got these questions a lot from people: “How can I really can more done?”. In my opinion, there are six tips that I had to assist you on getting more done:
The Internets:
30 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do on the Internet: The Web is learning new tricks every day. These surprising sites and services will help you solve problems and save time--and one might even make you a star.
Digital Photography:
The New York Times’ David Pogue offers 10 suggestions for better digital photography. Some notables:
* Extend the camera’s battery life by turning off the screen display and use the old-fashioned viewfinder.
* Pre-focus action shots by “half-pressing” the shutter to bring the camera into focus before your kid jumps in the pool.
* Turn off digital zoom. It only gets you grainy photos. You’re better off using optical zoom on a high-quality picture setting and cropping the photo in an image editor on the computer after the fact.
Lifehacks
Silicon Valley bosses get 57% pay rise
via Guardian Unlimited: Onlineblog: "The Mercury News tracks salary, bonuses, options gains and other forms of pay collected by local executives, and its latest What the Boss Makes reveals that the valley's top executives saw their pay rise 57% last year to a collective $2.1 billion."
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Winter rains make hiking to cascades spectacular
via Santa Cruz Sentinel: "Thanks to a season of unfettered rain, this spring brings you some truly over-the-top waterfalls in Santa Cruz County.
Visitors to Big Basin State Park’s spectacular waterfall row — Berry Creek Falls, Silver Falls, and Golden Cascade — might think that the new waterfalls look a lot like the old, but it’s all a matter of perspective.
You can get such a change of perspective in a day trip to one or more of Big Basin’s bountiful cascades or to any of the other gushing glories found in the county and beyond.
Our search for the combination of most accessible, most impressive and most photogenic led us up into the San Lorenzo Valley for a day of awe-struck wandering."
Visitors to Big Basin State Park’s spectacular waterfall row — Berry Creek Falls, Silver Falls, and Golden Cascade — might think that the new waterfalls look a lot like the old, but it’s all a matter of perspective.
You can get such a change of perspective in a day trip to one or more of Big Basin’s bountiful cascades or to any of the other gushing glories found in the county and beyond.
Our search for the combination of most accessible, most impressive and most photogenic led us up into the San Lorenzo Valley for a day of awe-struck wandering."
Friday, May 20, 2005
Semantics, Last Refuge of the Shameless
via Salon.com:: "At a press conference Thursday, Salon asked Republican Sens. Pete Domenici and Ted Stevens how they squared Frist's attempt to filibuster a judicial nominee in 2000 with his claim -- and theirs -- that filibusters of judicial nominees are unconstitutional and unprecedented.
'Ask him that, ask the leader that,' Domenici said. 'We don't question his vote. It's our vote. I voted to close the debate [on Paez]. You ask him about his vote.' Stevens, who had spent much of the press conference shouting about the Democrats' filibusters, chimed in: 'We're not asking questions about other people. You're here to ask questions of us.'
After the press conference, Frist's press secretary, Amy Call, approached us to try to explain how Frist's vote in favor of a filibuster in 2000 isn't inconsistent with his claim now that filibusters are inappropriate, unprecedented and even unconstitutional.
In 2000, Call said, 'Individual senators voted against cloture. That's not what you're seeing here. What you're seeing is the leadership of the Democratic Party putting together filibusters.' What ensued next was the following conversation in which we tried -- really, we did -- to understand why the Democrats' filibusters of judicial nominees are worthy of outrage from a man who once attempted to filibuster a judicial nominee himself."
'Ask him that, ask the leader that,' Domenici said. 'We don't question his vote. It's our vote. I voted to close the debate [on Paez]. You ask him about his vote.' Stevens, who had spent much of the press conference shouting about the Democrats' filibusters, chimed in: 'We're not asking questions about other people. You're here to ask questions of us.'
After the press conference, Frist's press secretary, Amy Call, approached us to try to explain how Frist's vote in favor of a filibuster in 2000 isn't inconsistent with his claim now that filibusters are inappropriate, unprecedented and even unconstitutional.
In 2000, Call said, 'Individual senators voted against cloture. That's not what you're seeing here. What you're seeing is the leadership of the Democratic Party putting together filibusters.' What ensued next was the following conversation in which we tried -- really, we did -- to understand why the Democrats' filibusters of judicial nominees are worthy of outrage from a man who once attempted to filibuster a judicial nominee himself."
Thursday, May 19, 2005
The Lies that Killed
Juan Cole on the inevitability of Bush's move against Iraq and the lies as to when he decided on war, via salon:
Tags: Iraq War
When Newsweek's source admitted that he had misidentified the government document in which he had seen an account of Quran desecration at Guantánamo prison, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita exploded, "People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he be credible now?"
Di Rita could have said the same things about his bosses in the Bush administration.
Tens of thousands of people are dead in Iraq, including more than 1,600 U.S. soldiers and Marines, because of false allegations made by President George W. Bush and Di Rita's more immediate boss, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, about Saddam Hussein's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction and equally imaginary active nuclear weapons program. Bush, Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repeatedly made unfounded allegations that led to the continuing disaster in Iraq, much of which is now an economic and military no man's land beset by bombings, assassinations, kidnappings and political gridlock.
And we now know, thanks to a leaked British memo concerning the head of British intelligence, that the Bush administration -- contrary to its explicit denials -- had already made up its mind to attack Iraq and "fixed" those bogus allegations to support its decision. In short, Bush and his top officials lied about Iraq.
* * *
The leaked British document demonstrates that the moment of decision was far earlier than the Bush administration publicly admitted. On Aug. 7, just weeks after the Dearlove visit to Washington, Cheney said in California that no decision had been made on Iraq. When Bush met with Saudi ambassador Bandar bin Sultan on Aug. 26, 2002, CNN reported that White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told the press, "The president stressed that he has made no decisions, that he will continue to engage in consultations with Saudi Arabia and other nations about steps in the Middle East, steps in Iraq." On Sept. 8, 2002, Cheney was interviewed by Tim Russert on "Meet the Press." Russert asked, "Will militarily this be a cakewalk? Two, how long would we be there and how much would it cost?" Cheney replied, "First of all, no decision's been made yet to launch a military operation."
* * *
The British memo is only the most decisive in a long list of documents that make it inescapably clear that Bush had decided to go to war long before. Indeed, Bush had decided as early as his presidential campaign in the year 2000 that he would find a way to fight an Iraq war to unseat Saddam. I was in the studio with Arab-American journalist Osama Siblani on Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now" program on March 11, 2005, when Siblani reported a May 2000 encounter he had with then-candidate Bush in a hotel in Troy, Mich. "He told me just straight to my face, among 12 or maybe 13 Republicans at that time here in Michigan at the hotel. I think it was on May 17, 2000, even before he became the nominee for the Republicans. He told me that he was going to take him out, when we talked about Saddam Hussein in Iraq." According to Siblani, Bush added that "he wanted to go to Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction, and he considered the regime an imminent and gathering threat against the United States." Siblani points out that Bush at that point was privy to no classified intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs and had already made up his mind on the issue.
* * *
Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill described to Ron Susskind in "The Price of Loyalty" the first Bush national security meeting of principals on Jan. 30, 2001. He writes that after Bush announced he would simply disengage from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and "unleash Sharon," he made it clear that Iraq would be a priority. "The hour almost up, Bush had assignments for everyone ... Rumsfeld and [Joint Chiefs chair Gen. H. Hugh] Shelton, he said, 'should examine our military options.' That included rebuilding the military coalition from the 1991 Gulf War, examining 'how it might look' to use U.S. ground forces in the north and the south of Iraq ... Ten days in, and it was about Iraq." Bush hit the ground running with regard to Iraq, shunting aside key U.S. foreign-policy goals -- such as a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict -- in favor of exploring military options against Saddam Hussein. O'Neill reports a sense at the meeting that the reluctance to commit ground forces to an Asian war, a legacy of the Vietnam War, had ended with the advent of the Bush presidency.
An Iraq war might have been a hard sell, even for the skilled and highly manipulative Bush team. But Sept. 11 ensured that they could get congressional approval and public support for a war. Americans were angry and willing to lash out in any direction specified by the president. Former terrorism czar Richard Clarke related that on the evening of Sept. 12, 2001, Bush "grabbed a few of us and closed the door to the conference room. 'Look,' he told us, 'I know you have a lot to do and all ... but I want you, as soon as you can, to go back over everything, everything. See if Saddam did this. See if he's linked in any way...'" When Clarke protested that it was clearly an al-Qaida operation, Bush insisted, "Just look. I want to know any shred ... Look into Iraq, Saddam." According to Clarke, Bush said it "testily."
Clarke reveals that Rumsfeld was already, on the afternoon of Sept. 12, "talking about broadening the objectives of our response and 'getting Iraq.'" Although early accounts of National Security Council meetings after the attacks highlighted the role of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz in pressing for an immediate war on Iraq, it has become increasingly clear that he was only one such voice, and hardly the most senior.
* * *
Nov. 27, 2001, was a significant date. Gen. Tommy Franks in his memoirs reveals that he received an unexpected call from Rumsfeld. "General Franks, the president wants us to look at options for Iraq." Franks knew exactly what the call portended. "Son of a bitch, I thought. No rest for the weary." There would be another war. The die had already been cast.
On Dec. 31 Newsweek reported, "In principle, Bush and his national-security team have decided that Saddam has to go, U.S. officials say. 'The question is not if the United States is going to hit Iraq; the question is when,' says a senior American envoy in the Middle East." The article notes Bush's oft-stated caution that no final decision had been made, but dismisses it on the basis of insider information. The main credit for this article was given to Christopher Dickey and John Barry, but Sami Kohen is listed as reporting from Turkey. Since a U.S. ambassador is quoted, and Kohen was the only one of the coauthors in the Middle East, he is likely the one who got the quote. Was his source Ambassador W. Robert Pearson?
Former Sen. Bob Graham of Florida says in his memoirs, "Intelligence Matters," that on Feb. 19, 2002, he visited the U.S. Central Command. Franks revealed to him that the command was no longer engaged in a war in Afghanistan. Graham was taken aback. Franks told the stunned senator, "Military and intelligence personnel are being re-deployed to prepare for an action in Iraq." The implementation phase had already begun.
Tags: Iraq War
Fibber Frist's Filibuster Fiasco
via Center for American Progress:
Documents obtained by American Progress show Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist participated in an effort to block one of Bill Clinton's judicial nominees via filibuster, then lied about it.
In recent weeks, Frist has been relentlessly preaching about the evils of judicial filibusters. Speaking to the Federalist Society on November 12, Frist said filibustering judicial nominees is 'radical. It is dangerous and it must be overcome.' Frist called judicial filibusters 'nothing less than a formula for tyranny by the minority.' When Bill Clinton was President, however, Frist engaged in the same behavior he is now condemning.
In 1996 Clinton nominated Judge Richard Paez to the 9th Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals. Conservatives in Congress held up Paez's nomination for more than four years, culminating in an attempted filibuster on March 8, 2000. Bill Frist was among those who voted to filibuster Paez.
On March 9, 2000, Former Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) issued a press release describing the intent of the Paez filibuster vote the day before. The release says Senator Smith "built a coalition of several moderate and conservative Senators in an effort to block" Paez's nomination. [4] Frist was a part of that coalition. Smith did not organize the filibuster to get more information on Paez (after all his nomination had been pending for four years). He organized the filibuster because he had already decided Paez was "out of the mainstream of political though and...should [not] be on the court"
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
US 'backed illegal Iraqi oil deals'
via Guardian: " The United States administration turned a blind eye to extensive sanctions-busting in the prewar sale of Iraqi oil, according to a new Senate investigation.
A report released last night by Democratic staff on a Senate investigations committee presents documentary evidence that the Bush administration was made aware of illegal oil sales and kickbacks paid to the Saddam Hussein regime but did nothing to stop them.
The scale of the shipments involved dwarfs those previously alleged by the Senate committee against UN staff and European politicians like the British MP, George Galloway, and the former French minister, Charles Pasqua.
In fact, the Senate report found that US oil purchases accounted for 52% of the kickbacks paid to the regime in return for sales of cheap oil - more than the rest of the world put together.
'The United States was not only aware of Iraqi oil sales which violated UN sanctions and provided the bulk of the illicit money Saddam Hussein obtained from circumventing UN sanctions,' the report said. 'On occasion, the United States actually facilitated the illicit oil sales."
* * *
Yesterday's report makes two principal allegations against the Bush administration. Firstly, it found the US treasury failed to take action against a Texas oil company, Bayoil, which facilitated payment of "at least $37m in illegal surcharges to the Hussein regime".
The surcharges were a violation of the UN Oil For Food programme, by which Iraq was allowed to sell heavily discounted oil to raise money for food and humanitarian supplies. However, Saddam was allowed to choose which companies were given the highly lucrative oil contracts. Between September 2000 and September 2002 (when the practice was stopped) the regime demanded kickbacks of 10 to 30 US cents a barrel in return for oil allocations.
In its second main finding, the report said the US military and the state department gave a tacit green light for shipments of nearly 8m barrels of oil bought by Jordan, a vital American ally, entirely outside the UN-monitored Oil For Food system. Jordan was permitted to buy some oil directly under strict conditions but these purchases appeared to be under the counter.
The Jordanian oil purchases were shipped in the weeks before the war, out of the Iraqi port of Khor al-Amaya, which was operating without UN approval or surveillance.
Investigators found correspondence showing that Odin Marine Inc, the US company chartering the seven huge tankers which picked up the oil at Khor al-Amaya, repeatedly sought and received approval from US military and civilian officials that the ships would not be confiscated by US Navy vessels in the Maritime Interdiction Force (MIF) enforcing the embargo.
Odin was reassured by a state department official that the US "was aware of the shipments and has determined not to take action".
The company's vice president, David Young, told investigators that a US naval officer at MIF told him that he "had no objections" to the shipments. "He said that he was sorry he could not say anything more. I told him I completely understood and did not expect him to say anything more," Mr Young said.
An executive at Odin Maritime confirmed the senate account of the oil shipments as "correct" but declined to comment further."
A report released last night by Democratic staff on a Senate investigations committee presents documentary evidence that the Bush administration was made aware of illegal oil sales and kickbacks paid to the Saddam Hussein regime but did nothing to stop them.
The scale of the shipments involved dwarfs those previously alleged by the Senate committee against UN staff and European politicians like the British MP, George Galloway, and the former French minister, Charles Pasqua.
In fact, the Senate report found that US oil purchases accounted for 52% of the kickbacks paid to the regime in return for sales of cheap oil - more than the rest of the world put together.
'The United States was not only aware of Iraqi oil sales which violated UN sanctions and provided the bulk of the illicit money Saddam Hussein obtained from circumventing UN sanctions,' the report said. 'On occasion, the United States actually facilitated the illicit oil sales."
* * *
Yesterday's report makes two principal allegations against the Bush administration. Firstly, it found the US treasury failed to take action against a Texas oil company, Bayoil, which facilitated payment of "at least $37m in illegal surcharges to the Hussein regime".
The surcharges were a violation of the UN Oil For Food programme, by which Iraq was allowed to sell heavily discounted oil to raise money for food and humanitarian supplies. However, Saddam was allowed to choose which companies were given the highly lucrative oil contracts. Between September 2000 and September 2002 (when the practice was stopped) the regime demanded kickbacks of 10 to 30 US cents a barrel in return for oil allocations.
In its second main finding, the report said the US military and the state department gave a tacit green light for shipments of nearly 8m barrels of oil bought by Jordan, a vital American ally, entirely outside the UN-monitored Oil For Food system. Jordan was permitted to buy some oil directly under strict conditions but these purchases appeared to be under the counter.
The Jordanian oil purchases were shipped in the weeks before the war, out of the Iraqi port of Khor al-Amaya, which was operating without UN approval or surveillance.
Investigators found correspondence showing that Odin Marine Inc, the US company chartering the seven huge tankers which picked up the oil at Khor al-Amaya, repeatedly sought and received approval from US military and civilian officials that the ships would not be confiscated by US Navy vessels in the Maritime Interdiction Force (MIF) enforcing the embargo.
Odin was reassured by a state department official that the US "was aware of the shipments and has determined not to take action".
The company's vice president, David Young, told investigators that a US naval officer at MIF told him that he "had no objections" to the shipments. "He said that he was sorry he could not say anything more. I told him I completely understood and did not expect him to say anything more," Mr Young said.
An executive at Odin Maritime confirmed the senate account of the oil shipments as "correct" but declined to comment further."
Schumer Prior to Floor Speech
via Daily Kos: "Why are the Republicans doing this when, in Schumer's words, there are 25 Republican Senators who believe in the filibuster? Four words.
The Extreme Religious Right. James Dobson & Co. To put it plainly, this is Schiavo Part 2. Frist has made a despicable Faustian bargain - do what Dobson tells him on the Nuclear Option, judicial nominees, and just about everything else, and they will back him for President in 2008."
The Extreme Religious Right. James Dobson & Co. To put it plainly, this is Schiavo Part 2. Frist has made a despicable Faustian bargain - do what Dobson tells him on the Nuclear Option, judicial nominees, and just about everything else, and they will back him for President in 2008."
The resignation of Scott McClellan
Olberman's Blog via MSNBC.com: "Whenever I hear Scott McClellan talking about ‘media credibility,’ I strain to remember who it was who admitted Jeff Gannon to the White House press room and called on him all those times.
Whenever I hear this White House talking about ‘doing to damage to our image abroad’ and how ‘people have lost lives,’ I strain to remember who it was who went traipsing into Iraq looking for WMD that will apparently turn up just after the Holy Grail will — and at what human cost."
Whenever I hear this White House talking about ‘doing to damage to our image abroad’ and how ‘people have lost lives,’ I strain to remember who it was who went traipsing into Iraq looking for WMD that will apparently turn up just after the Holy Grail will — and at what human cost."
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Laura Bush, Comic: They're Not All Laughing
via nytimes.com: "To the Editor:
I suggest that Laura Bush wake her husband up around 9:30 p.m. and travel around and look at the folks in this country working the second and third shifts on their second and third jobs in an attempt to make ends meet.
The Bushes are so far out of touch with reality and the working class in America! We are the ones who are desperate: desperate for decent jobs, and desperate for affordable health insurance and housing.
I don't think Chippendales can help this desperation.
Debbie Twyford Morrow
Raleigh, N.C., May 3, 2005"
I suggest that Laura Bush wake her husband up around 9:30 p.m. and travel around and look at the folks in this country working the second and third shifts on their second and third jobs in an attempt to make ends meet.
The Bushes are so far out of touch with reality and the working class in America! We are the ones who are desperate: desperate for decent jobs, and desperate for affordable health insurance and housing.
I don't think Chippendales can help this desperation.
Debbie Twyford Morrow
Raleigh, N.C., May 3, 2005"
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Open Wallets for Open-Source Software
via The New York Times: "Venture capitalists are again embracing open-source technology companies. JBoss, which offers a layer of software for controlling Web applications, was one of 20 such businesses that raised $149 million in venture money in 2004, according to estimates by the research firm VentureOne. At least three open-source start-ups raised $20 million last month alone.
But given some spectacular open-source failures in the late 1990's, a natural question may be whether some of these venture capitalists have perhaps lost their minds."
But given some spectacular open-source failures in the late 1990's, a natural question may be whether some of these venture capitalists have perhaps lost their minds."
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Open-source companies chase steady money
via CNET News.com: "Many industry veterans argue that open source is accelerating a shift that has been going on in the software industry for some time: Rather than hinge their business on big-ticket license contracts, software providers increasingly rely on recurring maintenance revenue.
And because most open-source tools don't have license fees attached to them, commercial open-source companies are often forced to build their businesses around services revenue, in the form of support, up-front installation or training."
And because most open-source tools don't have license fees attached to them, commercial open-source companies are often forced to build their businesses around services revenue, in the form of support, up-front installation or training."
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Let the Leader Twist
It would be a strategic blow if Tom DeLay's exit stage right were truly imminent. He is the embodiment of the Right's arrogance and hypocrisy and it would be a sad thing for progressives if he were allowed to leave the scene before he can inflict more carnage on himself and the repugs. I have no problem with folks like CAF turning up the heat with the media buys; I just hope that it stays on the burner and just reaches a good boil, say, around September 2006.
Sam Rosenfeld offers similar thoughts via TAPPED: "There’s all sorts of interesting speculation about the ifs, whos, and hows of Tom DeLay’s possible downfall, and they're all worth reading. I remain skeptical of the prospect for many of the reasons Ezra Klein and Jesse Lee mention; more importantly, I desperately hope that my skepticism is warranted. I’m fervently and sincerely cheering on the movement-conservative bigwigs gathering their resources to defend the House majority leader. The much-cited Wall Street Journal editorial attacking DeLay had me panicked that Democrats and their allies might actually succeed in securing the Hammer’s imminent fall, which would prove utterly disastrous for the prospects of nationalizing the 2006 mid-term elections with a reformist message that could topple many Republicans."
Sam Rosenfeld offers similar thoughts via TAPPED: "There’s all sorts of interesting speculation about the ifs, whos, and hows of Tom DeLay’s possible downfall, and they're all worth reading. I remain skeptical of the prospect for many of the reasons Ezra Klein and Jesse Lee mention; more importantly, I desperately hope that my skepticism is warranted. I’m fervently and sincerely cheering on the movement-conservative bigwigs gathering their resources to defend the House majority leader. The much-cited Wall Street Journal editorial attacking DeLay had me panicked that Democrats and their allies might actually succeed in securing the Hammer’s imminent fall, which would prove utterly disastrous for the prospects of nationalizing the 2006 mid-term elections with a reformist message that could topple many Republicans."
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Sources of The Conservative's Success
Kevin Drum via The Washington Monthly: "First, they created all those famous think tanks to spread their ideas: Heritage, Cato, AEI, etc. Second, they researched language and invented a new way of talking about conservative ideas and promoting wedge politics. Third, they figured out that the judiciary was a big deal and started overtly campaigning to install conservative judges on the federal bench. Fourth, when the Fairness Doctrine was tossed out in 1987, they glommed onto the underutilized AM spectrum and filled it up with the syndicated talk radio shows we all know and love today. Later, Fox News joined them. Fifth, they began the K Street Project, designed to coerce lobbying firms into hiring only fellow Republicans if they wanted any chance of getting their agendas passed.
The Democratic response to all this has been simple: build foundations of our own, fashion a competing liberal way of framing issues, fight back on judges, create liberal talk shows, and remind lobbyists that Republicans won't be in power forever. Which is all fine. But in a way, I think it misses the point.
What conservatives really did was to exploit new levers of power in ways that no one had thought of before. Their answers turned out to be foundations, language, judges, talk radio, and lobbyists, but there's nothing sacred about those particular levers. So while creating our own foundations and talk shows is important, what's more important is that we should be constantly searching for new and underappreciated levers of power and figuring out creative ways to exploit them. Howard Dean's campaign did this in a minor way with its use of internet MeetUps, a new way of organizing grassroots support that took everyone by surprise."
The Democratic response to all this has been simple: build foundations of our own, fashion a competing liberal way of framing issues, fight back on judges, create liberal talk shows, and remind lobbyists that Republicans won't be in power forever. Which is all fine. But in a way, I think it misses the point.
What conservatives really did was to exploit new levers of power in ways that no one had thought of before. Their answers turned out to be foundations, language, judges, talk radio, and lobbyists, but there's nothing sacred about those particular levers. So while creating our own foundations and talk shows is important, what's more important is that we should be constantly searching for new and underappreciated levers of power and figuring out creative ways to exploit them. Howard Dean's campaign did this in a minor way with its use of internet MeetUps, a new way of organizing grassroots support that took everyone by surprise."
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Hatchet Man Steffen Exposed
via Ed Kilgore temping at Talking Points Memo: "You probably haven't heard about it unless you live in or nearby the State of Maryland, but one of the more peculiar local political stories has been the exposure and firing of a Republican operative named Joe Steffen who was fanning, on the Freeper site no less, (completely unsubstantiated) rumors of extra-marital sexual activity by Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. Steffen is a long-time retainer for Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich, whom the very popular O'Malley is thinking about challenging in 2006. When O'Malley publicly exposed the smear effort, Ehrlich fired Steffen.
There's a big fat Style profile of Steffen and his career in today's Washington Post, and a good chunk of it deals not with his attempted sliming of O'Malley, but with his tours of duty of state agencies since Ehrlich's election, where he put a figurine of the Grim Reaper on his desk, let it be known that his nicknames were 'Prince of Darkness' and 'Doctor Death,' and went happily about compiling lists of Democrats to fire."
There's a big fat Style profile of Steffen and his career in today's Washington Post, and a good chunk of it deals not with his attempted sliming of O'Malley, but with his tours of duty of state agencies since Ehrlich's election, where he put a figurine of the Grim Reaper on his desk, let it be known that his nicknames were 'Prince of Darkness' and 'Doctor Death,' and went happily about compiling lists of Democrats to fire."
Monday, March 21, 2005
There Are No Principles Here
Sam Rosenfeld via TAPPED: "But more importantly, the liberal critique of how Republicans have handled this issue has less to do with “federalism” than it does with the separation of powers and the rule of law. The sustained ideological assault against an independent judiciary -- components of which include this weekend’s shenanigans and the current congressional majority’s zealous efforts to strip the courts of jurisdiction over any number of partisan agenda items -- is itself only one facet of a pervasive tendency of modern Republicans to disregard wholesale the integrity of codified processes and the autonomy of institutions, to change the rules and to politicize all conflict in the service of totally unprincipled and narrow political objectives. It’s worth reading this shrill, hysterical analysis from CBS’s legal expert and really trying to come to grips with what he’s saying:
As far as I can tell, conservative advocates in this fight haven’t even bothered to engage these kinds of questions -- they just don’t care. An individual woman in Florida must be “saved” by any means necessary and that’s all there is to say about the matter. Thus legislation is passed that doesn’t even bother to offer a forward-looking rule change in the process by which these kinds of decisions can be adjudicated in the future. (Instead, the action should be considered non-binding and narrowly targeted at the specific case in question -- sound familiar?)
We’re a law-based society. Rules matter. Precedents matter. Separation of powers and institutional autonomy matter. To the Republicans in power and the conservative intelligentsia lending legitimacy to their governance, apparently, such things don’t matter at all. Congressional Republicans capped a week during which they definitively demonstrated that small-government fiscal conservatism as a guiding legislative principle is completely dead by whipping up this grotesque circus of ill-informed hysteria and rampant trampling of rules and procedural limits. There’s nothing “hypocritical” in pointing out the apparently direct relationship between the ideological bankruptcy of Republican governance and their inability to recognize any limits on their actions. "
QUESTION: What does that concept do the regular give and take between the court systems, the idea of comity and cooperation between judges?
ANSWER: It destroys it. But that's the whole point of this Congressional action. Not liking a particular result in a case that has been litigated fully and completely by a court with competent jurisdiction, Congress now has said that the game must be re-done with new rules that heavily favor one side over the other. The implications of this move are astonishing. Just think about it. Anytime Congress doesn't like the result in a particular case, it could swoop in and call a "do-over," which is essentially what this legislation represents. And this from a Congress that has for a decade or so tried to keep all sorts of citizens-- including disabled employees-- out of federal court. If this law is declared valid, no decision in any state court in the country will be immune from Congressional second-guessing. It would throw out of whack the entire concept of separation of powers. The constitutional law expert Tribe calls it "trial by legislation" and he is right.
QUESTION: You are getting agitated again. Doesn't the legislation specifically say that it does not "constitute a precedent with respect to future legislation, including the provision of private relief bills"?
ANSWER: Yes, it says that. But so what. It said that the last time Congress did this and it didn't stop Congress from doing this now. Look, there is no other way to put it: this is the most blatant and egregious power-grab by one branch over another in my lifetime. Congress is intruding so far into the power of the judiciary, on behalf of a single family, that it is breathtaking. It truly will be fascinating to see how federal court judges react to this-- whether they simply bow down to this end-run or whether they back up their state-court colleagues. And it will be interesting in particular to see what the Supreme Court does with this case. Even the conservatives on the High Court-- and the Chief Justice in particular-- must be concerned about the precedent this sort of legislation would set.
As far as I can tell, conservative advocates in this fight haven’t even bothered to engage these kinds of questions -- they just don’t care. An individual woman in Florida must be “saved” by any means necessary and that’s all there is to say about the matter. Thus legislation is passed that doesn’t even bother to offer a forward-looking rule change in the process by which these kinds of decisions can be adjudicated in the future. (Instead, the action should be considered non-binding and narrowly targeted at the specific case in question -- sound familiar?)
We’re a law-based society. Rules matter. Precedents matter. Separation of powers and institutional autonomy matter. To the Republicans in power and the conservative intelligentsia lending legitimacy to their governance, apparently, such things don’t matter at all. Congressional Republicans capped a week during which they definitively demonstrated that small-government fiscal conservatism as a guiding legislative principle is completely dead by whipping up this grotesque circus of ill-informed hysteria and rampant trampling of rules and procedural limits. There’s nothing “hypocritical” in pointing out the apparently direct relationship between the ideological bankruptcy of Republican governance and their inability to recognize any limits on their actions. "
MI6 chief told Blair that US 'fixed' case for Iraq war
via Yahoo! News: "MI6 supremo Richard Dearlove briefed Blair and a group of ministers on the United States' determination to launch the invasion nine months before hostilities began in March 2003, the BBC programme will claim on Sunday.
After attending a briefing in Washington, he told the meeting that war was 'inevitable', according to The Sunday Times newspaper.
'The facts and intelligence' were being 'fixed round the policy' by US President George W. Bushs administration, Dearlove said."
After attending a briefing in Washington, he told the meeting that war was 'inevitable', according to The Sunday Times newspaper.
'The facts and intelligence' were being 'fixed round the policy' by US President George W. Bushs administration, Dearlove said."
More Bad News
via Digby: "By now most people who read liberal blogs are aware that George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just this week. A 68 year old man was given a temporary reprieve by the Texas courts just yesterday.
Those of us who read liberal blogs are also aware that Republicans have voted en masse to pull the plug (no pun intended) on medicaid funding that pays for the kind of care that someone like Terry Schiavo and many others who are not so severely brain damaged need all across this country.
Those of us who read liberal blogs also understand that that the tort reform that is being contemplated by the Republican congress would preclude malpractice claims like that which has paid for Terry Schiavo's care thus far.
* * *
Those who don't read liberal blogs, on the other hand, are seeing a spectacle on television in which the news anchors repeatedly say that the congress is 'stepping in to save Terry Schiavo' mimicking the unctuous words of Tom Delay as they grovel and leer at the family and nod sympathetically at the sanctimonious phonies who are using this issue for the"
Those of us who read liberal blogs are also aware that Republicans have voted en masse to pull the plug (no pun intended) on medicaid funding that pays for the kind of care that someone like Terry Schiavo and many others who are not so severely brain damaged need all across this country.
Those of us who read liberal blogs also understand that that the tort reform that is being contemplated by the Republican congress would preclude malpractice claims like that which has paid for Terry Schiavo's care thus far.
* * *
Those who don't read liberal blogs, on the other hand, are seeing a spectacle on television in which the news anchors repeatedly say that the congress is 'stepping in to save Terry Schiavo' mimicking the unctuous words of Tom Delay as they grovel and leer at the family and nod sympathetically at the sanctimonious phonies who are using this issue for the"
Monday, March 07, 2005
Party of Lincoln Senator . . . Denounces Lincoln
or why running all three branches of the government means never having to say your sorry . . . about the lynching, segregation, civil war, etc.
In news from behind the red curtain, according to a United States Senator, he and his fellow South Carolinians are still too pissed at our nation's greatest president for freeing the slaves and saving the Union to celebrate his birthday.via Raw Story:
Does that go for his black constituents as well? Maybe he should ask.
I guess they will be celebrating Booth's birthday instead, with a big white birthday cake decorated with a burning cross.
Todays Republican Party: Our Past is Now Your Future.
Tags: Political Jesusland
In news from behind the red curtain, according to a United States Senator, he and his fellow South Carolinians are still too pissed at our nation's greatest president for freeing the slaves and saving the Union to celebrate his birthday.via Raw Story:
"Senator Lindsey Graham has ignited a new furor in Washington over comments he made over the weekend referring to his state’s difficulty in “getting over” President Abraham Lincoln, with apparent reference to Lincoln’s role in the civil war and the freeing of American slaves, RAW STORY has learned.
“We don’t do Lincoln Day Dinners in South Carolina,” Senator Graham told a Lincoln Day gathering in Tennessee Saturday. “It’s nothing personal, but it takes awhile to get over things.”
Does that go for his black constituents as well? Maybe he should ask.
I guess they will be celebrating Booth's birthday instead, with a big white birthday cake decorated with a burning cross.
Todays Republican Party: Our Past is Now Your Future.
Tags: Political Jesusland
Title Momentum Swings Back to the Bhoys
A thrilling weekend of action has left the Hoops with a slight edge in the title chase as the SPL nears its final run-in. A magesterial display by Celtic on Sunday at Easter Road left the highly-touted Hibs wee-uns to pick up the pieces after a 3-1 rout. The scoreline, to be fair, flattered the home side, as the rampant Celts, sparked by Bellamy's pace and flair, kept constant pressure on the Hibs goal. Petrov remains in outstanding form despite playing week in-week out for the past 18 months or so without a break. Stan put Celtic on the score sheet just 5 minutes into the game, slotting in a cross from Sutton on a move started by Bellamy. Hartson and Bellamy finished off the game, with Beuzelim adding a consolation goal for the home side. As the Boss said, a tremendous display, proving that the recent Old Firm slip-up settled nothing.
Despite so many in the squad in fine form, Hoops fans would be happy to hand the weekend's top laurels to ex-Celt Brian Prunty who equalized for Inverness Caley Thistle against Rangers in the dying seconds at Ibrox on Saturday. Rumors of a rancorous home dressing room will leave no doubt that momentum has swung to the East End of Glasgow.
Ten wins and at least a draw at Ibrox sees the SPL title stay where it belongs at Parkhead, and in the adoring hearts of all Hoops supporters.
Hail Hail! And make mine a double.
Tags: Football Celtic
Despite so many in the squad in fine form, Hoops fans would be happy to hand the weekend's top laurels to ex-Celt Brian Prunty who equalized for Inverness Caley Thistle against Rangers in the dying seconds at Ibrox on Saturday. Rumors of a rancorous home dressing room will leave no doubt that momentum has swung to the East End of Glasgow.
Ten wins and at least a draw at Ibrox sees the SPL title stay where it belongs at Parkhead, and in the adoring hearts of all Hoops supporters.
Hail Hail! And make mine a double.
Tags: Football Celtic
Friday, March 04, 2005
Sowing the Seeds of Open Source Advocacy
Jono Bacon via LinuxDevCenter: "This article has provided a bird's-eye perspective on the issues of open source advocacy. These higher-level issues are fundamental in understanding the devil in the detail. In future columns, I will explain some of the ways in how you can advocate open source in a well-considered and intelligent manner. This process does not only involve understanding the open source community, but also understanding the business community and purely how people tick. Aristotle seemed to have a spookily accurate interpretation of how to develop as an advocate, and he was fundamentally correct when he stated, 'It is possible to fail in many ways ... while to succeed is possible only in one way.'"
Tags: Open Source
Tags: Open Source
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Online Mock Jury Focus Groups
On his South Carolina Trial Law Blog, David Swanner discusses a company, JuryTest, that conducts online focus groups for jury analysis in litigation . He did a comparison of the service with a live focus group he ran for an actual mediation, with mixed results.
Tags: Law Practice
I was surprised at how closely the on-line focus group information tracked the responses from our live focus group. However, the lack of interaction and videotape bothers me. I still think it’s a good tool when you have limited time or expenses. I also think an on-line focus group might be a good idea in the initial stages of a case to get general impressions and help formulate your discovery. I would not use an on-line focus group as a replacement for a live focus group, and would not rely on one for making critical case decisions. But I do think they are a valid, cost effective tool if you remember their limitations.
Tags: Law Practice
Thursday, February 24, 2005
When Ordinary is Not Enough, by Pamela Troy
via Democratic Underground:
Tags: Political Media
Our national media has shirked that responsibility. By abandoning the pursuit of truth in favor of a form of stenography, of he said/she said journalism, they have allowed lies to go unchallenged and the power of the press to be transformed into a propaganda vehicle for the Bush administration and its corporate buddies. The damage this has already done to our country and the terrible impact it has already had on individual American lives, is undeniable. When the history of the Bush administration is written – and I have enough faith in humanity to believe that the Bush faux patriotism extant today will someday be remembered with the same contempt that we now remember McCarthyism and Jim Crow – the mainstream press as it is now will not be regarded as heroes.
They know this. They aren't stupid and they aren't ignorant of history. But knowing something and admitting it to oneself are two different things.
It would have been nice if the Guckert/Gannon embarrassment had resulted in genuine soul-searching among the press about why this outrageous shill had gone undetected by the mainstream media even as he sat several feet away from reporters who are presumably the best and brightest of their profession. It could still happen. Maybe it will.
But don't bet on it.
Tags: Political Media
Hey Jesusland! Get a Job!
A commentary by Eric Scigliano via SeattlePI.com:
Tags: Political Jesusland
"There's a general perception out there that the blue states are big net recipients of federal subsidies," says Harvard business professor Herman "Dutch" Leonard. And there's a corollary perception that, in contrast to these welfare-queen states, the inland and Southern states are a heartland of self-reliance and private initiative, less dependent on federal spending. As Leonard says, "That historically hasn't been the case." And it's becoming less and less so.
* * *
The results, when you crunch the fragmented state data, are striking. In 2003, according to the Tax Foundation data, the blue states contributed $966 billion to the federal Treasury and got $830 billion back. The reds paid $697 billion and received a whopping $909 billion. Welfare queens, indeed.
Tags: Political Jesusland
Compassionate Conservatism On Display
The message from Jesusland: our troops are heroes, except when the parents of said troops dare speak out against the policies that led to their childrens' deaths.
via News Hounds:
meat-eating leftist weighs in: "These are the red-staters, my friends. Look at them now. They cry more when NASCAR drivers die than when American troops lose their lives."
Also check out the Sheehan's support group for families who have lost loved ones in the war, Gold Star Families For Peace.
Tags: Political Jesusland Iraq Media
via News Hounds:
Cindy and Pat Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq last April, were guests during the second hour of Alan Colmes' radio show last night (2/22/05). The grief was evident in their voices as they spoke from their hearts about their opposition to the Iraq war and the conduct of Bush and Rumsfeld toward the troops. I almost cried listening to them and Colmes was also obviously affected by their story. At the end of the segment, he said, "I know I echo the sentiments from our audience when we express - it almost sounds redundant - our sympathy for your loss." Unfortunately, he was wrong. Much of the FOX listening audience was not moved by the Sheehans but angry that they dared to speak out against the war and that Colmes would allow them to do so on national radio.
meat-eating leftist weighs in: "These are the red-staters, my friends. Look at them now. They cry more when NASCAR drivers die than when American troops lose their lives."
Also check out the Sheehan's support group for families who have lost loved ones in the war, Gold Star Families For Peace.
Tags: Political Jesusland Iraq Media
What We Could Have Bought for $300 Billion
via The Left Coaster: "The cost of the Iraq War is obscene, there isn’t any real auditing of how this money is being spent, our own citizens desperately need the spending for basic necessities, and the $300 billion exacerbates an already insane fiscal policy. George Bush seems more than happy to squander our money on total failure while nobody speaks for the citizens of America, who are being neglected and saddled by incredible debt for this utter failure."
Tags: Iraq Political Budget
Tags: Iraq Political Budget
Big firm blogs....Not passionate, but good for the blawgosphere
via Promote the Progress: "I firmly believe that the difference between bfb's [big firm blogs] and blogs by solos and small firms will be one of passion. In a recent post for the anniversary of PTP, I explored the question of why I blog...and gave this simple answer: passion. This one word defines the entire blogging experience for me. Sure the blog helps with client development (a little), but my passion for intellectual property law, computers, technology, and writing is the driving force.
I suspect most bfb's will lack this passion, making them easy to spot. Associates will blog for credit (real or perceived), not passion. Partners will supervise by committee, which will likely drain any passion that may be present.
I do think a surge of bfb's will benefit the blawgosphere generally, though. Big firms will attract a lot of attention, and should nudge more and more people into the blawgosphere. Big firms have big networks and big marketing budgets. Their entry into the blawgosphere will attract lawyers and non-lawyers alike. Some of those people will start using RSS, follow links and conduct searches and, one day, discover the passion present in solo and small firm blogs."
Tags: Law Practice Blogging Marketing
I suspect most bfb's will lack this passion, making them easy to spot. Associates will blog for credit (real or perceived), not passion. Partners will supervise by committee, which will likely drain any passion that may be present.
I do think a surge of bfb's will benefit the blawgosphere generally, though. Big firms will attract a lot of attention, and should nudge more and more people into the blawgosphere. Big firms have big networks and big marketing budgets. Their entry into the blawgosphere will attract lawyers and non-lawyers alike. Some of those people will start using RSS, follow links and conduct searches and, one day, discover the passion present in solo and small firm blogs."
Tags: Law Practice Blogging Marketing
The Open Source Approach to Patent Policy
The American Constitution Society Blog: "So why worry about software developers, after all patent policy went largely unnoticed during the industrial revolution? That question points to a critical difference between software development and manufacturing. Patent infringement in the manufacturing world is a corporate enterprise. To pose any real threat to a patent holder, it would require millions of dollars in capital to deploy the technology required to truly infringe. That is not the case for software, where one individual with a broadband internet connection can do as much damage to a patent holder as a Fortune 500 company. The difference makes things sticky at the policy level."
Tags: Open Source Patent Law Intellectual Property
Tags: Open Source Patent Law Intellectual Property
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Twelve Ways Technology Can Make You a Better Trial Lawyer
David Swanner hosts South Carolina Trial Law Blog, the tagline of which is Using Technology to be a Better Trial Lawyer. He offers 12 helpful tips as a guest blogger on Evan Schaeffer's Notes from the (Legal) Underground.
Tags: Law Practice Technology
Tags: Law Practice Technology
Interview with Mark Crispin Miller
via BuzzFlash.com: "Buzzflash: The Republicans are against quotas and affirmative action, but accuse the Democrats of discriminating when they don't support a Clarence 'Stepan Fetchit' Thomas or Alberto 'Torquemada' Gonzales. Now, they are making an Internet gay hustler into a victim. How do they get away with their brazen immorality and hypocrisy?
Mark Crispin Miller: Again, it's not hypocrisy. It's worse. When they assail the Democrats for bigotry, some of them at least are capable of half-believing it. The propagandist who can vent straight from the heart is always more effective, more convincing, than the one who has to fake it. Orwell's notion of 'doublethink' is pertinent here. The rightists have the knack for being cynical manipulators and passionate fanatics at the same time. So they can muster something like genuine outrage that the Democrats are bigoted, etc.
Also, they are themselves more deeply into victimology than any liberals. They actually do see themselves as persecuted. So did Hitler."
Tags: Political Media
Mark Crispin Miller: Again, it's not hypocrisy. It's worse. When they assail the Democrats for bigotry, some of them at least are capable of half-believing it. The propagandist who can vent straight from the heart is always more effective, more convincing, than the one who has to fake it. Orwell's notion of 'doublethink' is pertinent here. The rightists have the knack for being cynical manipulators and passionate fanatics at the same time. So they can muster something like genuine outrage that the Democrats are bigoted, etc.
Also, they are themselves more deeply into victimology than any liberals. They actually do see themselves as persecuted. So did Hitler."
Tags: Political Media
Friday, February 18, 2005
The fast boat crusade
via Steve Gilliard's News Blog: "See, the right pundits exist because they live in polite Washington society, a place where Chris Hitchens can swan around drunk with his pregnant mistress, while still married and got help from his 'friends', who he then turned on like Kim Philby. It's a little club where everyone drinks with each other and their kids go to the same schools.
We are not part of that world. We hate that world. We want to destroy that fake civility and bring real accountability to their work. But to do that, we have to challenge them."
Tags: Political Media
We are not part of that world. We hate that world. We want to destroy that fake civility and bring real accountability to their work. But to do that, we have to challenge them."
Tags: Political Media
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Peer-to-Peer Networking and Digital Rights Management: How Market Tools Can Solve Copyright Problems
Cato Institute Study: "This study argues that the basic functions of DRM and P2P can be quite complementary and that innovative market mechanisms that canhelp alleviate many copyright concerns are currently blossoming. Government should protect the copyrights of content owners but simultaneously allow the free market to determine potential synergies, responses, and outcomes that tap different P2P and DRM business models. In particular, market operations are greatly preferable to government technology controls, on the one hand, or mandatory compulsory licensing schemes, on the other."
Tags: Law Copyright Technology P2P DRM
Tags: Law Copyright Technology P2P DRM
Copyright, Commodification, and Culture: Locating the Public Domain
Byt Julie Cohen, Georgetown Law, via SSRN: "The paper offers a different organizing metaphor for the relationship between the public and the proprietary that matches the theory and practice of creativity more accurately: The common in culture is the cultural landscape within which creative practice takes place. This in turn suggests a need to recalibrate the doctrines that determine the scope of a copyright owner’s rights during the copyright term, particularly those that establish the right to control the preparation and exploitation of copies and derivative works."
Tags: Law Copyright
Tags: Law Copyright
Open-source board eyes fewer licenses
via CNET News.com: "Incompatible licenses among different products prevent people from sharing code from different open-source projects. Having too many licenses complicates potential sales to corporate customers, which may have to do extensive legal reviews and manage multiple kinds of open-source contracts.
"It's confusing as hell to explain to customers," said Michael Olson, CEO of open-source database company Sleepycat Software. "It's confusing…because we are just wrapping our heads around what (different licenses) mean to us as businesspeople." "
Tags: Open Source Law
"It's confusing as hell to explain to customers," said Michael Olson, CEO of open-source database company Sleepycat Software. "It's confusing…because we are just wrapping our heads around what (different licenses) mean to us as businesspeople." "
Tags: Open Source Law
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Mergers and The Future of the Law Firm Business Model
Bruce at the Adam Smith, Esq. Blog sees the recent spate of mergers as supporting those who view that mid-size firms (which are defined as between 100-400 lawyers), especially those without solid footholds in several of key large cities, are an endangered species.
On the other hand, Reid, of Reid My Blog, sees terrific opportunities in the shakeout resulting from recent mergers.
Tags: Law Practice
On the other hand, Reid, of Reid My Blog, sees terrific opportunities in the shakeout resulting from recent mergers.
Tags: Law Practice
Have Those Seeking SS's Downfall Bothered To Think Things Through?
via Matthew Yglesias's blog: "So I've now gone on for a very long time about this, but I think it's important. Not just for Social Security but because it tells us a lot about the operations of the contemporary right. It's no shame that the vast majority of conservatives haven't thought through the detailed economic questions here. Doing that sort of thing simply isn't the job of 'most people.' It's outsourced to a small community of specialists. But what's telling is how hollow the small community of specialists is at its core. The rank-and-file are deferring to talk radio hosts and the like who are, in turn, deferring to more highbrow pundits (this is, I think, the sort of role I play in my small way on the left). The pundits think they're deferring to a bunch of trusted experts somewhere who've run the numbers. But it turns out that no one has run the numbers. It's a systemic breakdown throughout the movement with regard to the single largest program the federal government runs."
Tags: Political Media
Tags: Political Media
ABA 20th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference
In D.C. (actually in Arlington, VA -- USPTO-adjacent), April 13-16. The ABA IPL site: "Now in its 20th year, the Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law promises to provide a gathering of the foremost authorities on the state of intellectual property law. It is the one conference of the year that you as an IP law practitioner should not miss. The conference is recognized for its preeminence in covering IP law topics, both nationally and internationally, and in recent years has received over 600 attendees annually."
Tags: Law Practice Intellectual Property
Tags: Law Practice Intellectual Property
The Hotline, the Cowed and Lazy Journos and Bulls**t Sanctimony
John at AmericaBlog laying into The Hotline:
This same could be said for all the other disingenuous hand-wringing from the MSM cropping up all over.
Tags: Political Media
Oh, gee, the Hotline warns, this might establish a precedent. Really? You mean the GOP might respond by using our sex lives against us as a weapon to destroy us and curry votes with bigots?
I don't like this battle, I don't enjoy this battle. I hate this battle. But the battle began years ago, and until now, we sat back and watched and waited and hoped it would go away. Well it's not going away. We have a choice. We can sit back and watch the GOP sex police destroy us. Or we can fight back. And I can think of nothing more poetic, nothing more just, than fighting back by simply holding them to their own standards.
This same could be said for all the other disingenuous hand-wringing from the MSM cropping up all over.
Tags: Political Media
Moron is an Interesting Word
via Reuters.com: "'Benefit cuts is an interesting word,' Bush was quoted as saying in the Quad-City Times, a Davenport, Iowa newspaper.
'Benefits are scheduled to grow at a certain rate, and one of the suggestions, for example ... was they grow ...they grow, but not at a rate as fast as projected. You can call it anything you want. I would call it an adjustment to reality,' he said."
Tags: Political Bush
'Benefits are scheduled to grow at a certain rate, and one of the suggestions, for example ... was they grow ...they grow, but not at a rate as fast as projected. You can call it anything you want. I would call it an adjustment to reality,' he said."
Tags: Political Bush
MGM Studios v Grokster Briefs
All ot the briefs may be found conveniently all in one place, courtesy of the fine folks at the U.S. Copyright Office.
Tags: Law Intellectual Property Copyright P2P
Tags: Law Intellectual Property Copyright P2P
Don't like software patents? Learn to deal
via CNET: "Open-source programmers might not like the idea of software patents, but those critics would be better off adapting to the fact that they're not going away, Hewlett-Packard's top Linux executive said Tuesday.
'At the end of the day, software patents are a way of life. To ignore them is a little bit naive,' Martin Fink, HP's vice president of Linux, said here at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. It's fine to object to software patents, but it's foolhardy not to try to acquire them, he said.
'Refusing to patent one's ideas is leaving oneself exposed for absolutely no good reason,' Fink said. 'For some, (getting patents) may seem like selling out. You can comfort yourself that it's what you do with the patent that matters, not the fact that you have one.'"
Tags: Law Intellectual Property Patent
'At the end of the day, software patents are a way of life. To ignore them is a little bit naive,' Martin Fink, HP's vice president of Linux, said here at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. It's fine to object to software patents, but it's foolhardy not to try to acquire them, he said.
'Refusing to patent one's ideas is leaving oneself exposed for absolutely no good reason,' Fink said. 'For some, (getting patents) may seem like selling out. You can comfort yourself that it's what you do with the patent that matters, not the fact that you have one.'"
Tags: Law Intellectual Property Patent
Reviews of David Bollier's Brand Name Bullies
Wired's' Amit Asaravala asserts that the book's real value is in its numerous case studies of copyright and trademark battles.
Tags: Brands Intellectual Property Law Copyright Trademark
Tags: Brands Intellectual Property Law Copyright Trademark
High Cost of Living Goes Beyond Ridiculous
Too depressing to blog about.
SFGate: Bay Area home prices increase 20%, sales skyrocket;
Low interest rates, overseas buyers lift market even higher:
More good news. SF Business Times: Income-to-housing gap widens in California
Tags: Bay Area Housing Economy
SFGate: Bay Area home prices increase 20%, sales skyrocket;
Low interest rates, overseas buyers lift market even higher:
Though the start of the year is typically the slowest time in the real estate market, abnormally strong demand, relatively short supply of properties and an influx of international buyers pushed the median price for a single- family home in the nine counties to $556,000, just below the record of $560, 000 set in November but a whopping 20 percent more than the year-ago price of $463,000. It was the strongest year-over-year appreciation rate in four years.
The housing market's continued robust performance defies well-worn predictions of a slowdown. Following the technology meltdown and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, many economists expected the region's real estate sector to suffer. But after a decline in sales of high-end homes in 2001, the market rebounded -- and then some -- driven by low interest rates, consumers' reluctance to plow money into stocks and newly flush trade- up buyers.
More good news. SF Business Times: Income-to-housing gap widens in California
Want to buy a house in California? Get a job. Make that two jobs. Or maybe three.
California households, with a median household income of $53,240, are $56,070 short of the $109,320 qualifying income needed to purchase a median-priced home at $470,920 in the state, according to figures compiled by the California Association of Realtors and released Tuesday.
Tags: Bay Area Housing Economy
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Great Summary of U.S. Import Exclusion Proceedings
via I/P Updates: "In essence, so-called "Section 337 investigations" are administrative proceedings before the U.S. International Trade Commission to determine whether the Customs Service should be directed to excluded infringing goods from importation into the U.S. Most trademark and copyright infringing imports can be stopped by working directly with the Custom Service, without having to obtain an exclusion order from the ITC, as discussed at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/commercial_enforcement/ipr/. Consequently, most of the unfair import investigations before the U.S. International Trade Commission involve patent infringement allegations.
The law and administrative procedures for these investigations are very similar to the "civil procedures" that are used to decide patent infringement allegations in the federal courts. However, parties to these investigations include "complainants," "respondents," and the ITC "staff" attorney representing the public interest. Section 337 investigation also tend to proceed more quickly than civil lawsuits."
Tags: Law Intellectual Property Trademark Copyright
The law and administrative procedures for these investigations are very similar to the "civil procedures" that are used to decide patent infringement allegations in the federal courts. However, parties to these investigations include "complainants," "respondents," and the ITC "staff" attorney representing the public interest. Section 337 investigation also tend to proceed more quickly than civil lawsuits."
Tags: Law Intellectual Property Trademark Copyright
Monday, February 14, 2005
Dennis Kennedy Answers Your Questions
My current favorite post via his eponymously titled blog: "What three things would you tell your younger self, if you could go back in time, or your daughter in the future, to resolve about themselves when trying to decide whether law is the right career?"
Where's The Bill
via TAPPED: "Appearing yesterday on Tim Russert's Meet The Press, Charlie Rangel got asked the question that's on the lips of every member of the Beltway media elite. 'If you oppose the president's plan, what is your plan? What would you do?' Rangel's answer was just right: 'What a question. What president's plan? The president has not presented us a plan.'
The president has been earning plaudits both publicly and (based on some emails I've seen) privately from journalists and others for showing the courage to tackle Social Security reform. The reality, however, is that he's tackled nothing. He's been running around the country talking about his ginned-up crisis, how wonderful it would be if you had a private account, and how he'll never raise taxes on anyone ever for any reason. Reading between the lines, we can all tell what that means -- benefit cuts. But without the president putting an actual plan on the table, no one can say exactly whose benefits will be cut and by how much. And that, of course, is the point of keeping the Republican plan secret. Publicly releasing it would subject it to criticism and Social Security's friends could point out the particular weaknesses in the proposal."
The president has been earning plaudits both publicly and (based on some emails I've seen) privately from journalists and others for showing the courage to tackle Social Security reform. The reality, however, is that he's tackled nothing. He's been running around the country talking about his ginned-up crisis, how wonderful it would be if you had a private account, and how he'll never raise taxes on anyone ever for any reason. Reading between the lines, we can all tell what that means -- benefit cuts. But without the president putting an actual plan on the table, no one can say exactly whose benefits will be cut and by how much. And that, of course, is the point of keeping the Republican plan secret. Publicly releasing it would subject it to criticism and Social Security's friends could point out the particular weaknesses in the proposal."
Scalp Collecting and Hand-wringing: The Right Takes The Cake, Every Time
via Digbys blog: "Kevin is right that scalp collecting benefits the right, but it has nothing to do with bloggers or liberals' willingness to engage in the game. It has to do with the fact that character assasination has been the political combat weapon of choice on the right for a long, long time. Hounding people from their jobs is one of their favorite tools of intimidation.
Remember Webb Hubbel, Bernie Nussbaum, Mike Espy, Henry Cisneros, Roger Altman blah, blah, blah? And let's not forget that they spent 70 million taxpayer dollars trying to hound Clinton out of office. He just refused to go. The only difference now is that the target is the long-hated liberal media and bloggers have joined the assassination squad.
If liberal bloggers' record of scalps is Trent Lott losing the leadership post that Bush wanted him out of anyway then we aren't even in the same league. The Right Wing Noise machine is a group seasoned professionals made up of bloggers, newspapers, FOX, talk radio, and a direct pipeline to powerful Republicans in the government. We are Kos and Atrios et al. We are not equivalent."
Remember Webb Hubbel, Bernie Nussbaum, Mike Espy, Henry Cisneros, Roger Altman blah, blah, blah? And let's not forget that they spent 70 million taxpayer dollars trying to hound Clinton out of office. He just refused to go. The only difference now is that the target is the long-hated liberal media and bloggers have joined the assassination squad.
If liberal bloggers' record of scalps is Trent Lott losing the leadership post that Bush wanted him out of anyway then we aren't even in the same league. The Right Wing Noise machine is a group seasoned professionals made up of bloggers, newspapers, FOX, talk radio, and a direct pipeline to powerful Republicans in the government. We are Kos and Atrios et al. We are not equivalent."
Federal Circuit Addresses Experimental Use
In Lisle Corp. v AJ Mfg, the panel upheld the lower court's denial of summary judgment sought on grounds that the patent was invalid on public use grounds. The court agreed that the evidence was sufficient to show that any disclosure fit within the experimental use exception.
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