Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

GOP Appointee Dominance in Federal Courts

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Via Digby, a pointer to CAF's The Rogues In Robes which contains this arresting graphic:

Yes, it's all the fault of those liberal judges!

(And just imagine how monotone this will become if McCain is elected!)

Posted in Law: Elections | 3 Comments

‘Latest Visitors’ Sidebar On Again

Posted on July 14, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

The folks at Mapstats seem to have fixed their visitor location reporter, so I've restored it to my sidebar. Hello to my visitor from Podhori, Hlavni Mesto Praha, Czech Republic! Please note that, unlike John McCain, I am aware that Czechoslovakia doesn’t exist anymore.

(And Happy Bastille Day to any French readers and Francophiles everywhere.)

This might be a good time to remind readers, especially those who read via the partial or full-text RSS feeds that I welcome your participation in the comment threads too.

Incidentally, why is that so many more users of RSS feeds choose the partial rather than the full feed? Not that I'm complaining, I'm just curious?

Posted in Discourse.net | 2 Comments

Howie Klein Explains Why Taddeo Will Win

Posted on July 14, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

DownWithTyranny!: Another Exceptional Candidate Debbie Wasserman Schultz Is Trying To Undermine In Florida— Meet Annette Taddeo sets out the case for Democrat Annette Taddeo's upcoming victory in the Congressional district where I live:

FL-18 is the most Democratic leaning (PVI- R +4) of the three districts and Annette's campaign is both well-organized and well-funded. Last year two state assembly seats in the district flipped from Republican top Democratic, a far better predictor than Wasserman Schultz' propaganda barrage on behalf of Ileana Ros Lehtinen. And FL-18 gave over 56% of it's vote to Senator Bill Nelson in 2006. Bush won there in 2004 with 54%— as opposed to 57% in Lincoln Diaz-Balart's 21st CD (PVI- R+6) and to 56% in Mario Diaz-Balart's 25th CD (PVI- R+4). While the Diaz-Balarts pretty much acknowledge they are right-wing extremists and just count on tired anti-Castro rhetoric to get them elected over and over, Ros-Lehtinen though voting almost exactly the way the Diaz-Balarts vote (for the war, for illegal wiretaps, against children's health care, for tax breaks for the rich, etc), tries to paint it over with a thin veneer of being a “moderate.” She isn't. Since October 10, 2002 she has participated in 63 votes regarding the war in Iraq. She voted the straight Bush-Cheney line 62 times and voted “against” them when the House decided to transform a grant into a loan. But when it comes to supporting our troops with health care or sufficient armor and pay increases, she voted against the troops each and every time— 22 votes against the troops, zero votes for the troops. The fake moderate voted the exact same way on aid to veterans: 23 times against the vets, zero times for the vets. Does this sound “moderate?” Ileana Ros-Lehtinen opposes a woman's right to choice, even in the case of rape and/or incest. She isn't a moderate and she isn't an independent. She's no less extreme than the Diaz-Balarts— and that is extreme.

Recent polling by Lake Research, the most respected Beltway polling firm, shows a very different story from the one Wasserman Schultz has been surreptitiously pushing out to the media. Although Annette is just starting to get known to most of the district, the poll shows she is already “positioned for a strong general election contest against [the] incumbent… After hearing a mix of positive and negative on both women, Taddeo pulls into a narrow lead over Ros-Lehtinen: 44% for Taddeo to 42% for Ros-Lehtinen.”

Personally, I think Taddeo can do it — but she'll need to go more negative against Ros-Lehtinen than has so far been her taste. Goodness knows there's so much to be negative about…

As for what Klein has to say about Wasserman-Schultz's continued failure to support our candidate, I'm very sorry to read that she hasn't learned her lesson from last time (see Wasserman Schultz Deserves Her Bad Publicity). So here's my message to Rep. Wasserman-Schultz: Let's get Taddeo on the “Red to Blue” list ASAP.

And don't think we won't remember this when you run for state office.

Posted in Politics: FL-18 | Comments Off on Howie Klein Explains Why Taddeo Will Win

Regulating Fannie, Freddie, and other GSEs

Posted on July 14, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are much in the news today, as the federal government finds itself obliged to make the 'implicit' government guarantee quite explicit.

I wrote a lot about these strange entities some time ago, and you can read what I had to say about what should have been done at Reinventing the Government Corporation, 1995 Ill. L. Rev. 543.

Among other things, I advocated breaking up Fannie and Freddie into smaller bodies that would not be too big to fail, and that would compete more with each other. I also proposed various accountability measures, and even looked into the issuance of risky subordinated debt to act like a canary in a coal mine.

I've put the full table of contents in the extended part below.

Continue reading →

Posted in Law: Federal Govt Corps | Comments Off on Regulating Fannie, Freddie, and other GSEs

Google Privacy Notice Visibility Varies by Location

Posted on July 13, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Ted Byfield notices something interesting: Google: 'Privacy? Depends—where are you?'.

Documenting and figuring out how Google treats different language/national groups differently is going to be a full time job for someone…

Posted in Internet | 7 Comments

Miami Wakes Up to Political Normality (This is Good for Democrats)

Posted on July 12, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

David Rieff has a long piece in tomorrow's NYT magazine about Cuban-American politics in Miami, provocatively titled, Will Little Havana Go Blue?.

The main conclusions track what those of us who live here see around us: Cuban-American politics are being changed by a generational shift (a rising generation that is American first and treats its hyphen much they way other ethnic groups do), and a political differences between recent immigrants and the revanchists who have been here 40-50 years. The recent escapees are much less willing to support policies that prevent them sending money to relatives left behind, and which limit their ability to visit their families still trapped in Cuba.

The result is a breakage of the monolithic support for the GOP and for its candidates. Particularly hurt are the Diaz-Balart brothers, who suffer from poor constituent services and a failure to bring home the kind of bacon that their storied predecessors — Claude Pepper, Dante Fascell — did.

Although Rieff doesn't address this directly, it turns out that Joe Garcia's vicious mockery of the Diaz-Balarts as a “one trick pony” may be right on the mark.

Rieff's piece contains another bit of wisdom. Miami's shift to normal politics away from unthinking equation of the GOP as the natural home for Cuban-Americans does not mean automatic victory for Democrats.

The lesson for local campaigners is obvious: Cuban-Americans being up for grabs means that they will need to be addressed in the same way as other swing constituencies: with appeals on the issues they care about (housing, jobs, health, social security, as well as Cuba) and — and this is probably key — turnout will rule. The community is no longer monolithic. Just like with many other communities that means whoever gets out their voters will win.

It's going to be a turnout election down here.

Posted in Miami, Politics: FL-25/FL-27, Politics: US: 2008 Elections | 4 Comments