Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

The August Air War Begins Early

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Progressive groups target health care denier Ben Nelson (DINO-Neb.) in HealthCareCantWait.com.

Apparently they have a significant ad buy scheduled in Nebraska and are raising funds for more.

Posted in Health Care | 2 Comments

Snarkfest!

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Brad has outdone himself in Someone Is Saying Something Wrong on the Internet in the White House Briefing Room!.

It begins:

Jonathan Weisman of the Wall Street Journal raises his hand in the White House Briefing Room and asks a question:

(1) Is there a point where you really are endangering the planet, where the focus on sub-lunar issues has ben excessive and there's just no way you can properly guard against the threat of the ravening Hexans from North Polar Jupiter

My mistake. He actually said:

(2) Is there a point where you really are soaking the rich, where the carrying capacity of this small group of people has been exceeded and there's just no way you can keep lumping all of the problems of the finances of the United States on 1 percent of those households?

But the truth value of the two statements is the same.

Posted in Econ & Money | Comments Off on Snarkfest!

Fix the ToolTips Behind Taskbar Problem

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

A nifty utility fixes the Tooltips-Behind-Taskbar problem. See Fix Windows Tooltips Showing Behind Taskbar for details.

Amazingly, it seems Microsoft has known about this problem since Win 95, and it persists not just in XP but also Vista.

Is it fixed in Windows 7, aka 'the best Vista Service Pack ever'?

Posted in Software | Comments Off on Fix the ToolTips Behind Taskbar Problem

Welcome Home

Posted on July 29, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

We are back in Miami. The return journey was notable for its length, and especially for the ineptitude of baggage handling at MIA on our flight from Chicago. I'm used to the idea that you never get a bag off a plane in less than 29 minutes — the airport boasts that 95% of flights get their first bag within 30 minutes — but 50 minutes? For a domestic flight? On a weekday evening?

Someone did manage to get three or four bags off our flight about 35 minutes after we landed — and I bet they log it as within 30 minutes — but the fact is that not one more bag came off until about 50 minutes after the flight landed, so pretty much the entire plane's passengers were there (mostly tourists from the look of them) getting more and more steamed in the hot, crowded, low ceilinged baggage claim area around carousel 24.

MIA is festooned with signs bragging that it was selected as the 'airport of the year' last year.

About the 45 minute mark I went to the nearby baggage handling desk to ask if they had a complaint form. The man looked at me as if I was insane, or speaking a language he never heard of. Once that failed to drive me off, he started tapping on his computer screen. No, they don't have complaint forms, but there's a long-distance number you can call 24/7 or a PO Box you can write to. The lady behind me in the line said she was there for the same reason – to find out what they'd done with our flight's bags.

I was afraid I might know what was going on: could it be that the ramp rats were back? (In the past MIA has been plagued with a baggage theft ring.)

Then again, maybe it was the MIA TSA. They won an award too.

In the end, the bags appeared, and we dragged ourselves home.

Posted in Miami | 14 Comments

Media Matters Patiently (Pointlessly?) Rebuts Each and Every Birther Claim

Posted on July 28, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Media Matters Action Network has produced The Definitive Birther Takedown.

I guess it's handy to have a one-stop-shopping site for this, but as I said earlier, the people who believe this stuff are not going to be swayed by mere facts. Facts, it is well known, have a liberal bias.

Posted in Politics: Tinfoil | 12 Comments

The GOP Has Troubles With Reality

Posted on July 28, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Mike Stark has turned his talent for ambush journalism to Republican Congressmen. He asked them if they personally believed that Barack Obama is legally entitled to be President of the United States. Almost none of them would affirm this belief on camera. Watch Birthers on the Hill and be amazed, disgusted, or worried, depending on your emotional fortitude.

Incidentally, anyone who is unaware of the literal incoherence of the Birther arguments need look no further than this appearance of Birther spokesperson, right-wing radio host, and former Watergate conspirator and felon G. Gordon Liddy on Hardball:

Chris Matthews's best move here wasn't confronting Liddy with documentary evidence he is wrong — mere documents failed to move him, as they failed to move so many of the crazies in the Birther cult — but rather his spinning the Birther view to its logical conclusion: If, as they argue, President Obama was born abroad, not only is he ineligible to be President as he's not a 'natural born citizen' but the President is an illegal alien who should be deported since he's never been naturalized and doesn't have a visa. Liddy swallowed that, but this is so crazy that it's going to turn the press — except maybe Lou Dobbs who conceivably might lose his job over this — against them.

Note also that Liddy's reference to a “deposition” is a fiction — the actual source of this canard is a mistranslation in an interview.

More here and here if you need it.

Back when I lived in England, both sherry-drinking and beer-drinking intellectuals in the UK used to deride the British Tory part as “the stupid party”. Today British intellectuals boast that whatever their Tories may be, they're not as crazy as the US Republican party. They don't give people with burglary convictions radio shows in the UK either.

Posted in Law: Constitutional Law, Politics: Tinfoil | 8 Comments