Monthly Archives: October 2006

Wes Clark Steps Up in the Invisible Primary

Posted on October 28, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

There are two elections going on simultaneously in the Connecticut Senate race. There’s Lamont v. Lieberman of course, but there’s also the first round in the invisible primary for the 2008 presidential election. The invisible primary is the one where would-be candidates compete for the love, energy and money of party activists who they hope will propel their candidacy forward before the rest of the world really starts to notice.

Wes Clark took a big step forward in that primary today by making this effective ad for Lamont:

Few of the other possible candidates have done much beyond a token appearance, and almost none have done any Lieberman-bashing, even though he refused to respect the result of the party primary. Wes Clark shows here not only that he’s tough, but that he’s a party player. The activists will like that.

Posted in Politics: US: 2006 Election, Politics: US: 2008 Elections | 1 Comment

Britons and Their Speed Cameras

Posted on October 27, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

I'm interested in surveillance and in privacy in public places. Here's an article about how Britons feel about one sort of public surveillance: they hate it. In addition to actually destroying a number of speed cameras, Britons are also trying to undermine them,

Cameras Catch Speeding Britons and Lots of Grief: Technology has moved on considerably since the 1990s, when the first speed cameras were installed in Britain. Now, in addition to the standard cameras that photograph the speeding cars’ license plates, there are cameras that can accurately photograph drivers’ faces — so that they cannot claim someone else was driving at the time — and cameras that work in teams, calculating average speeds along a stretch of road.

Of course, for every ingenious new camera, there is an ingenious new camera-thwarting device. These include constantly-updating G.P.S. equipment that alerts drivers to camera locations and a special material that, when sprayed on a license plate, is said to make it impervious to flash photographs.

There are also the low-tech methods of covering a license plate with mud or altering its letters with black electrical tape

Posted in Law: Privacy, UK | 1 Comment

Still in the Dark

Posted on October 27, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Having read this New York Times article, Tennessee Controversy Shaped by Spin Expert, twice, I’m still in the dark as to the identity of the mystery man in charge of the GOP’s racist ad campaign.

This follow-up piece identifies the author of the commercials as one Scott Howell, a man described as having a “history of bare-knuckled tactics and close relationship with Karl Rove.”

But is the producer the head honcho? This we are not told, only the following,

Yet if angry voters are looking for a place to direct their anger, they may have a hard time.

Mr. Howell did not produce the spot for Mr. Corker, who has disavowed it. He produced it for a quasi-independent organization that is financed by the Republican National Committee but operates wholly out of the committee’s control or direction.

Does Mr. Howell run that body? Does it even have a name? We are not told.

Maybe the head guy is “Terry Nelson, another consultant affiliated with the spot”? He’s now working for Saint McCain, so it couldn’t possibly be him, could it?

Mr. Nelson’s firm, the Crosslink Strategy Group, employs as a consultant Chris LaCivita, who worked with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that produced negative advertisements about Senator John Kerry in the 2004 presidential campaign, according to the firm’s Web site.

Is there no level to which McCain won’t stoop? We’re not told that either, although here we can guess.

Posted in The Media | 1 Comment

Repeal the Torture Bill

Posted on October 27, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

This is good.

Dodd regrets not filibustering:

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd says he regrets being talked out of filibustering tough new tribunal legislation signed by President Bush today . The Democrat says he plans to seek new legislation to overturn portions of the bill. Dodd denounced the measure, which civil liberty groups have said endangers many freedoms.

The bill sets up military tribunals to try terror suspects and allows the introduction of evidence obtained through tough interrogation procedures. Dodd says the measure would do little to aid in the hunt for terrorists because information obtained through intimidation is rarely accurate. Dodd says he initially intended to filibuster the bill, but was talked out of it by other Democrats who said there wouldn’t be enough votes to support the filibuster. The senator is campaigning in Iowa as he considers a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The part about Dodd running for President? Less good. But the part about starting a move to repeal the torture bill after the election — that is a great idea. Pity it’s only “portions” though. What does Dodd want to keep?

Of course, even with a perfect (and unlikely) result in the election, there’s not much of a prayer of passing such a bill over a veto, but it’s still worth doing to keep the issue alive.

Posted in Torture | Comments Off on Repeal the Torture Bill

Politicizing the IRS is a Political Cancer Symptom

Posted on October 26, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

The NYT reports that the admonistration is manipulating the IRS for political gain: I.R.S. Going Slow Before Election,

The commissioner of internal revenue has ordered his agency to delay collecting back taxes from Hurricane Katrina victims until after the Nov. 7 elections and the holiday season, saying he did so in part to avoid negative publicity.

The commissioner, Mark W. Everson, who has close ties to the White House, said in an interview that postponing collections until after the midterm elections, along with postponing notices to people who failed to file tax returns, was a routine effort to avoid casting the Internal Revenue Service in a bad light.

Except that it isn’t routine at all: “four former I.R.S. commissioners, who served under presidents of both parties, said that doing so because of an election was improper and indefensible.”

Kudos to David Cay Johnston for doing a little fact checking.

Nixon politicized the IRS. Are there any bad habits of Nixon’s left that we haven’t seen in this lot? (Not to mention all their newly-minted bad habits.)

There is a cancer on the Presidency. And this is one of its many symptoms.

Posted in Law: Tax, Politics: The Party of Sleaze | 2 Comments

A Scholarship for Bloggers?

Posted on October 26, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

A $5,000/year scholarship for bloggers? Apparently so: Announcing The Blogging Scholarship from the Daniel Kovach Foundation.

It seems grad students can apply — so why not law students too? They want a 3.0 GPA, a lively blog, and an application by Oct. 30, which is just a few days away.

I confess to being a little puzzled as to why blogging seems worth so much more than other things, but there you have it.

They will pick ten finalists and then, uh-oh, have a “public vote” to choose the single winner. I wonder how they plan to prevent ballot-stuffing.

Posted in Blogs | 4 Comments