Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Update on White House Blacklist

Posted on February 4, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

You know, I can just vaguely recall when the press cared when the White House had an enemies list. But that was another time, another country.

So here's the latest on the Fargo do-not-admit list. The official white house position is that it was all a mistake, by a volunteer, but no one knows who it was, and there has been a policy decision taken that it will not be possible to find out.

I kid you not.

· IN-FORUM ·: “It was the result of an overzealous volunteer,” said White House spokesman Jim Morrell of the list. “We weren't aware of it here at the White House.”

Republican Party officials and Morrell said they do not know the identity of the volunteer.

“I don't know if we'd ever be able to find out what overzealous volunteer it is or anything like that,” said Jason Stverak, executive director of the North Dakota Republican Party. “We'll talk to people and stuff, but it will be impossible.”

Got that folks back home? Be sure to keep your mouths shut tight.

If there were Democratic talk radio, it could milk this for weeks — I imagine live callups of various people associated with the event, asking them if they saw the list, who gave it to them, etc. etc. Plus calling on various White House officials to repudiate the practice, to make promises that future events will be open, to describe how tickets are made available.

Indeed, it's not just a partisan opportunity: A real press would be all over this at least prospectively for the next events, looking at how tickets are distributed.

It's not just the wench that's dead.

Posted in Politics: The Party of Sleaze | 3 Comments

Gonzales Confirmed: A New Low

Posted on February 4, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Yesterday the Senate confirmed Alberto Gonzales to be the Attorney General of the US. That is the same man who both commissioned and approved the torture memos. Who could not bring himself to say torture is always wrong when quizzed live by a Senator. Who probably committed obstruction of justice in sabotaging the investigation into the Plame affair. Who may have lied to Congress about his shielding the boss in the Texas jury affair.

Yet all the Republicans — including POW torture victim John McCain — and six Democrats (including the quisling-like Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) and, sadly, our own Bill Nelson from Florida) voted to confirm. The final vote showed only 36 against, too few to sustain the filibuster which was thus not attempted, a tactical decision that I will not second guess.

A vote for Bush, I said before the election, is a vote for torture. We reap now the bitter fruits of what our fellow citizens then sowed.

May they (and the rest of us too) not get what they deserve.

Posted in Iraq Atrocities | 4 Comments

Stefan Brands’s “Identity Corner”

Posted on February 3, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

The Identity Corner is a new blog by Stefan Brands, who is one of the top applied cryptographers in the world, yet also a very fluent writer on the social policy implications of cryptographic systems.

Brands's book, Rethinking Public Key Infrastructures and Digital Certificates: Building in Privacy remains one of the best works on digital certificates and the policy questions that surround them.

I'm sure this will be interesting for anyone who cares about the technological version of 'identity politics'.

Posted in Blogs, ID Cards and Identification | 7 Comments

1984: We’re Behind Schedule (But Catching Up Fast)

Posted on February 3, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Don't Mind Me. I'm Just Doing My Job is really funny until you think about it. Then it's not so funny.

Posted in The Media | 3 Comments

More News About Our Shaky Democracy

Posted on February 3, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

From Talking Points Memo (quoting the North Dakota Fargo Forum):

Fargo City Commissioner Linda Coates is among more than 40 area residents included on a list of people barred from attending President Bush's speech today in Fargo.

Among the 42 area people on the do-not-admit list: two high school students, a librarian, a Democratic campaign manager and several university professors.

White House spokesman Jim Morrell and Don Larson, a spokesman for the North Dakota governor's office, say they don't know anything about such a list.

“This is the first I'm hearing of it,” Morrell said when contacted Wednesday.

But two sources close to Tuesday's ticket distribution confirmed the list exists and includes a handful of names of people who were not to receive tickets to today's event at North Dakota State University's Bison Sports Arena.

The list was supplied to workers at the two Fargo distribution sites, along with tickets and other forms citizens were asked to fill out upon receiving them. People who handed out tickets had copies of the list at their tables to determine if anyone should be denied access, both sources said.

The list contains a wide range of people. Several wrote opinion page letters to The Forum criticizing Bush or the war in Iraq. Others wrote letters in support of gay rights or of Democratic policies.

Legally, if the space is rented for a private event they can block who they like, but it's still ugly when a public official behaves like that. If they are not paying rent, it is a sufficiently public forum that this is a legal wrong as well as a moral travesty.

Posted in Civil Liberties | 1 Comment

Fun Online US Geography Quiz Game

Posted on February 3, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Place the State invites you to drop each state onto the map of the US, and tells you how close you got (each state is dropped on a blank map, you don't get your previous guesses to help you.)

Just less than half of my placements were close enough to count as fully correct. And, while most of my errors were fairly small, I learned that Arkansas is much further west than I knew.

Posted in Internet | 4 Comments