Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Tinfoil, Revisted

Posted on October 10, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Hey, if you can't have a Bush boom, have a Bush bulge!

Daily Kos argues there might be something to the idea that Bush had something hidden under his jacket during the first debate, relying primarily on the Bush campaign's initial reaction to a NYT query about the bulge: a false accusation that the pictures had been doctored. Cryptome, meanwhile, sees tinfoil everywhere and has the techie details, too, including 28 8×10 color glossy photos, sadly lacking, however, in circles and arrows.

Update: Digby explains the Battle of the Bulge — GW Bush's tailor is to blame! Yes it's all because, GW Bush uses a very expensive French tailor.

Posted in Politics: Tinfoil | Comments Off on Tinfoil, Revisted

Arizona Libertarians Seek to Block Third Presidential Debate

Posted on October 10, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

This sounds like a plausible argument to me, but it's not at all my field:

Arizona LP files suit to stop state funding of presidential debate: Arizona Libertarians have filed a lawsuit that could stop Arizona State University from sponsoring the third presidential debate between George Bush and Sen. John Kerry, scheduled for Oct. 13. The lawsuit maintains that by spending up to $2 million to sponsor the event in Tempe, the university is making an illegal campaign contribution to the Republican and Democratic parties.

“It's a clear case of misusing state funds,” said David Euchner, attorney for the Arizona Libertarian Party (AZLP).

“Arizona recognizes three political parties,” Euchner continued. “A debate which included all three of those parties would be a legitimate expenditure on education and public information. A debate including only two of the three candidates is a partisan campaign commercial — and an illegal donation to partisan political associations.”

Having said it's plausible, if the money has been paid over, I don't see what they can do about it except set an Arizona precedent for any next time, unless Arizona has funny third-party restitution laws. But if the money hasn't been paid over…

Posted in Law: Everything Else | 5 Comments

Jacques Derrida, RIP

Posted on October 9, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Jacques Derrida is dead. I never got to meet him, but my brother once interviewed him, and produced what amounts to a journalist's intro to Derrida and deconstruction.

Posted in Dan Froomkin, Kultcha | Comments Off on Jacques Derrida, RIP

Kevin Drum Says Last’s Night’s Big Lie Was About the Economy

Posted on October 9, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Kevin Drum argues convincingly that during the debate Bush uttered “one of the great whoppers of all time” regarding the economy when he said that “Non-homeland, non-defense discretionary spending was raising at 15 percent a year when I got into office. And today it's less than 1 percent, because we're working together to try to bring this deficit under control.”

No such thing:

Outside of the personal fantasyland Bush seems to inhabit, the truth is simple: spending of all kinds has skyrocketed under his administration and the Republican Congress. They've increased spending twice as fast as Clinton, three times as fast as Bush 1, and four times as fast as Carter. And remember: this doesn't include defense spending, entitlement spending, or homeland security. 9/11 and Medicare have nothing to do with it.

See the whole post, and the great chart, for all the details.

Posted in Politics: US: 2004 Election | Comments Off on Kevin Drum Says Last’s Night’s Big Lie Was About the Economy

“Dred Scott” is Code for “Roe v. Wade”?

Posted on October 9, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

One of GW Bush's odder remarks last night was that he would appoint Supreme Court Justices who opposed Dred Scott. At the time it seemed an unfortuanate attempt to pick an uncontroversial example (even the hard right is against slavery) but, no, it seems it may have been code to the base.

For details, see Paperwight's Fair Shot: Dred Scott = Roe v. Wade. (via Kevin Drum)

Posted in Politics: US: 2004 Election | 9 Comments

Help My Neighbor

Posted on October 9, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

I am entering this post from a terminal in the Kendall public library, where I have just spent the last 30 minutes killing spam while my kids play in the local chess club.

The nice gentleman at the terminal next to mine has a technical problem neither he nor I can solve. He doesn't have a computer at home. He reads his email online (via mail.yahoo.com) at the library. As you might expect, the computers here are seriously locked down: you can't save anything to a hard disk, although you can bring in your own floppy to write to. Someone sent him an email with a zipped attachment. The computers here don't have any unzipping software and there is no way to download one. The only browser is IE, which doesn't seem to open the .zip extension automatically.

So how can he read the attachment to his mail?

Posted in Internet | 8 Comments