Monthly Archives: April 2007

CREW Says White House “Lost” 5 Million Emails

CREW says,

Through two confidential sources, CREW learned that the Executive Office of the President (EOP) has lost over FIVE MILLION emails generated between March 2003 and October 2005. The White House counsel's office was advised of these problems in 2005 and CREW has been told that the White House was given a plan of action to recover these emails, but to date nothing has been done to rectify this significant loss of records.

Full report on the legal background online too.

5,000,000 in 30 months. That's 166,666/month. Or about 5,500 per day. How many people is that?

Update: Some relevant data on that question.

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | Comments Off on CREW Says White House “Lost” 5 Million Emails

What I’m Listening To

I've been listening to Pandora a lot lately. I have a bunch of stations defined, in varying degrees of bakedness, plus a few stations defined by other people. But what I do most of all is use Pandora's “Quickmix” feature, which allows one to select some or all of one's defined stations; Pandora then cycles among them randomly, a song at a time. So I get an eclectic and unpredictable station when I want it, and a more targeted station when I want that.

If you have any interest in what I'm listening to, you too can ride along on Froomkin's Pandora 'Quickmix'.

As I understand it, the way this works is that what you get will be determined by the same algorithm as determines what I get, but it won't necessarily be the identical songs. Plus, I get to alter which of my stations are in the mix on a rolling basis (and I do!), and also to modify my stations, also on a rolling basis. When I do either of those things, that changes the algorithm which determines what you hear.

But, as I understand it, you don't get to change what I or others hear. All you can do is stop listening, mark a given song as something you don't want to hear again for a month, or (up to six times per hour), skip to the next song.

At this writing I have it set for a fairly broad mix, which includes a little folk, a little comedy, a little weirdness, some great solo singers (mostly female but including Leonard Cohen) and quite a lot of 80/90s pop and especially (then) alternate rock. I find I can't work to rap, so that's out of the mix, yes even Gil Scott-Heron, except sometimes on the weekend.

Posted in Kultcha | Comments Off on What I’m Listening To

History Repeats Itself

SO, those RNC emails that Karl Rove et all were sending each other about official business while staying off the radar of the official archives…. It seems that a bunch of them were accidentally deleted.

The White House said Wednesday it had mishandled Republican Party-sponsored e-mail accounts used by nearly two dozen presidential aides, resulting in the loss of an undetermined number of e-mails concerning official White House business.

[WH spokesman Scott] Stanzel said he could not speak to whether anyone was intentionally trying to avoid White House archiving because he had not spoken to all those involved.

Stanzel said some e-mails have been lost because the White House lacked clear policies on complying with Presidential Records Act requirements.

Before 2004, for instance, e-mails to and from the accounts were typically automatically deleted every 30 days along with all other RNC e-mails. Even though that was changed in 2004, so that the White House staffers with those accounts were excluded from the RNC's automatic deletion policy, some of their e-mails were lost anyway when individual aides deleted their own files, Stanzel said.

He could not say what had been lost, and said the White House is working to recover as many as they can. The White House has now shut off employees' ability to delete e-mails on the separate accounts, and is briefing staffers on how to better make determinations about when — and when not — to use them, Stanzel said.

Watergate anyone?

History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.

I take it this is the first time?

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | 4 Comments

Surviving Miami Cop Stops

The Justice Building Blog's “Rumpole” had a satiric posting the other day about how to survive Miami cop stops:

When Stopped by a Metro Dade Police Officer, it is recommended to fold the fifty behind the license and place the thumb over the money and the forefinger over the license. Hand the license to the officer and discretely slide the currency into the officer’s palm. Those of you that have been to Joes and not waited long for a table know how to do it.

When stopped by the City Of Miami or Miami Beach, it is appropriate to immediately advise the officer of any special medical conditions so that they may beat you in a manner that does not aggravate the injury. The City of Miami Beach specifically recommends that you place your wallet in your hand and curl into a fetal position. When the “appropriate amount of force necessary to subdue the unruly motorist” has been applied, Miami Beach requests that the payment to the officer be proffered prior to the arrival of Fire Rescue.

Hialeah and many departments in Broward like to taser their drivers as a way of “warming up” the parties, however quick thinking motorists can negotiate a lower voltage with a private chat with the officer before the taser is used.

Here are a few other “Do’s” and “Don’ts”:

Do: alert the office to any unusually large amount of drugs or money in the car.

Don’t: offer to split the dope with the cop.

Do: Comment on the professionalism and courtesy the officer exhibits when you are pulled over.

Don’t: mention Rodey King, Arthur McDuffie, Officer Lozano, Johnny Cochran, or any type of Ticket Clinic.

I wasn't going to blog it until I saw the story in today's Miami Herald, Mayor's former in-law: Cops clobbered me,

Harry Castro, former brother-in-law of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, said Miami-Dade cops beat him up early Easter morning — in an apparent case of mistaken identity.

Police ordered Castro out of the Mercedes at gunpoint. Castro was trying to unbuckle his seat belt when officers yanked him from the car and slapped on handcuffs.

''They started beating the hell out of him,'' [his lawyer] said. “They kicked him in the side. They kicked him in the head. His face is completely swollen, one eye is black and blue and purple and almost completely swollen shut. There's road rash all over his face.''

So maybe Rumpole wasn't kidding?

Posted in Miami | 1 Comment

US Treaty With Tripoli 1796-97

US Treaty with Tripoli, 1796-1797:
Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli and Barbary.

Authored by American diplomat Joel Barlow in 1796, the following treaty was sent to the floor of the Senate, June 7, 1797, where it was read aloud in its entirety and unanimously approved. John Adams, having seen the treaty, signed it and proudly proclaimed it to the Nation.

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

The implications for modern politics are left as an exercise for the reader.

Posted in Politics: US | Comments Off on US Treaty With Tripoli 1796-97

Does Posing Naked for Playboy TV Have Anything to Do With Your Fitness to Practice Law?

There's heavy breathing going on at the WSJ Law blog as they report that Brooklyn Law School Student Bares All. It seems that Ms. Adriana Dominguez, a 3L who has “worked in the domestic violence unit in the Brooklyn DA’s office and served as treasurer of her law school’s Legal Association of Activist Women” also, as the NY Daily News put it, “shed her briefs”.

The WSJ blogger asks if this additional extracurricular activity might cause difficulties with the NY character and fitness committee when Ms. Dominguez applies to join the bar.

Let the jokes about visible fitness of the candidate, and the lack of character of the bar begin.

Kidding aside — assuming the conduct in the video was legal, it's First Amendment protected speech, and I can't imagine how a bar committee would dare block someone on the basis of their legally protected speech. They better not dare, anyway.

A more interesting question is to what extent a stunt like this might impact one's legal career. I imagine some straitlaced firms might think twice about hiring this kind of amateur videographer. (Maybe Sullivan & Cromwell is not a good bet?) And I could see it being an issue that might get in the way of a judicial career — would a governor or President nominate someone knowing this would be an issue at the confirmation hearing?

Some people are going to say that this sort of dumb stunt shows poor judgment, and might raise legitimate questions in a client's mind. And I'm sure that there comes a — gradually receding? — point where it's all just too much. But if the romp in question is no more than the Daily News article makes it sound (“happily strips naked, gets spanked and holds gavels up to her bare breasts”) well, really, who in the end cares?

Posted in Law School, Law: Ethics | 6 Comments