Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Padilla Event at UM Monday Night

Posted on October 5, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

There’s going to be a particularly interesting event Monday night at our law school. LAFAC and the American Constitution Society have invited Andy Patel, who is Jose Padilla’s lawyer, to speak on “Lawyering Terrorism After September 11th: Litigation Strategy in the Jose Padilla Case”. He’ll be joined by Prof. Stephen Vladeck who is also a member of the Padilla defense team. Prof. Mario Barnes will act as Moderator.

The event will be held Monday, October 10, 5:00 p.m., Room F209 here at UM Law, and there will be a reception afterwards, at 6:30 p.m., in the Faculty Meeting Room.

Posted in U.Miami | 2 Comments

Comment Spam is Getting Weird

Posted on October 5, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Today I deleted some comment spam. A daily task. But this spam, although it carried the traditional link to a commercial web site, was a bit odd. This is what it said:

No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.

– Sara Corner

I got about half a dozen of them.

More generally, my spam is less of a pain since I turned off trackbacks for everything but the most recent items.

Posted in Discourse.net | Comments Off on Comment Spam is Getting Weird

William Arkin Pulls No Punches

Posted on October 5, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

William Arkin, pungently:

Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers retired this week as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and received the usual platitudes from the President and others about his leadership of the military since September 2001. He’s off to Kansas State University in his home state, according to some reports with a possible role with the school’s Institute for Military History and 20th Century Studies. I’m not sure I could say, as a watcher of Myers for five years, what unique contribution he’s made, or what philosophy he holds about military matters, or even what he has contributed. Two memories stick in my head: Myers’ vociferous defense of the Iraq war plan — he’s not known for public expressions of emotion — after others criticized the size of the U.S. ground force early in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The other memory is one of Myers standing next to or behind President Bush at various White House and Crawford events that just happened to occur during the 2004 Presidential campaign. His appearance in uniform with Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, and Powell suggested that he was some kind of political appointee, and that the military somehow endorsed the President is his campaigning mode. Maybe the new Chairman could be a little more mindful of the fact that he is a military advisor to the President and not a member of the administration.

Arkin certainly calls ’em like I see ’em.

In fact, this Early Warning by William M. Arkin blog that the Washington Post is running reminds me why I read newspapers.

Except. Wait. You can’t read Arkin’s blog in your newspaper. It’s only at Washingtonpost.com. (Kinda like this.) As Jay Rosen notes, Washingtonpost.com is much livelier than the online offering by the NYT. Plus the print NYT has other problems too these days.

Posted in National Security | 1 Comment

Just in Case You Were Thinking of Coming to Visit

Posted on October 5, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

click to learn more about Florida's 'shoot first law'

Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which lets people use guns or other deadly force to defend themselves in public places without first trying to escape, is now in force, and anti-gun campaigners are gearing up to warn tourists about it.

“Dangerous” says the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “Pathetic,” responds Gov. Jeb Bush to the mock scare campaign that is really designed to protest the law.

Full text of statute.
New York Times: Tourists to Florida Get a Warning as Greeting.

Posted in Florida | Comments Off on Just in Case You Were Thinking of Coming to Visit

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Posted on October 4, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

The predictable news story has hit the cycle: TalkLeft: Bush Didn’t Ask Miers About Abortion Views. I could swear I read the same article about Roberts just a few weeks ago.

And just like last time, my first reaction is that the press is being snookered: ordinarily asking questions like that is Cheney’s job. And much as I looked, I never saw any news reports — or Senatorial questioning — about what Cheney asked Roberts in their long meetings.

I suppose in this case, though, it’s possible that, knowing Miers so well, they didn’t even have to ask. And in fairness, it’s possible that had someone asked Miers wouldn’t have answered, as Eric Alterman Jeralyn Merritt subbing at Altercation quotes her as saying such questions are improper. Then again, that also means she won’t be saying much to the Senate, doesn’t it.

Posted in Law: The Supremes, The Media | 2 Comments

News You didn’t Read Last Week

Posted on October 4, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

The biggest US domestic news you didn’t hear last week was that the Pentagon has decided to pour $50 billion — maybe 20% of the money needed to rebuild New Orleans — down a rat hole. Having already spent $19 billion over twenty years to build a prototype that doesn’t work, the Pentagon is planning to start “full rate production” of the Opsrey V-22 tilt rotor aircarft. Unofficial estimated cost of the 458 craft planned? $100 million each, for a total just under $50 billion — plus inflation, cost-overruns, and the usual.

And the @#$$#@ of it is, the V-22 doesn’t work—if exposed to dirt. I’m told, however, that dirt is sometimes found in the places one might want to land it.

Adding insult to injury, the contractors ran an offensive anti-Muslim ad promoting the V-22, which incidentally shows an artist’s conception of the plane doing what it was originally intended to do, but can’t.

The good folks at the Project on Government Oversight are all over it at the POGO Blog.

[timestamp corrected]

Posted in National Security | 2 Comments