Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Homeland Security Official Expresses Interest in Shock Bracelets for Air Travellers

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Cosmic Iguana has found something incredible at TURNING TRAVELERS TO PRISONERS. The source is the Washington Times, so I suppose it's suspect.

A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®. According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers.

This bracelet would:

• take the place of an airline boarding pass

• contain personal information about the traveler

• be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage

• shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes

The Electronic ID Bracelet … would be worn by every traveler “until they disembark the flight at their destination.”

They have a pdf of what seems to be a letter from Homeland Security to back up the story: page one and page two.

Otherwise I'd treat it like My First Cavity Search.

Posted in Law: Right to Travel | 6 Comments

New Poll Looks Good for Local Democratic Candidates

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

A new poll spells trouble for the Diaz-Balart brothers, who represent neighboring South Florida in Congressional districts. As McClatchy's Washington bureau puts it,

A new poll suggests that two Republican members of Congress from Miami are facing a tight race from their Democratic challengers — the first significant challenge to the incumbents in years.

The poll, by Bendixen & Associates, shows Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, Cuban-American brothers with a long Miami political pedigree, are leading their Democratic challengers by only single digits with four months to go to the election. Potentially more troubling for the GOP incumbents, the poll shows neither cracked 50 percent of the vote. That's a far cry from their dominance in previous campaigns.

The Joe Garcia campaign was quick to crow about the results in an email to supporters:

A few moments ago, The Miami Herald released a new, independent poll.

The headline: “GOP incumbents facing a tight race in South Florida.”
Here are the raw numbers:
Joe Garcia 39%
Mario Diaz-Balart 44%

Now, I know some of you may be wondering what all the fuss is about — Joe isn't ahead, so what's the big deal?

Well, here is quick a break-down of these numbers to put things into perspective:

1. Diaz-Balart is in serious trouble. In politics, there is a key figure that analysts look at when determining an incumbent's viability — the “re-elect' rating (whether 50% of the public would vote to re-elect him or her). Mario is at a 44% re-elect, which places him well below the 50% viability threshold an incumbent needs to feel comfortable.

2. Joe has nowhere to go but up. Mario Diaz-Balart enjoys the luxury of near-universal name recognition that comes with being a career-politician — even though most people only know him as 'the brother of the guy that wants to be the future President of Cuba,' but that's besides the point. Joe Garcia has yet to run a single television ad and our work has been limited primarily to grassroots outreach. As is the case around the country, 2/3 of independent voters are voting Democratic. We expect this pattern to hold as more voters learn of Joe Garcia's long record of working across party lines to find common-sense solutions to problems.

3. The issues are on our side. Mario Diaz-Balart is not on the right side of any major issue. Whether it's on the economy, rising gas prices or the Iraq War, Mario Diaz-Balart's blind support for the failed policies of George W. Bush places him out of touch with our community. Meanwhile, Joe Garcia's plan to provide tax cuts for working families, make our country energy independent and bring a responsible end to the Iraq War reflects the values of South Florida and is resonating with voters.

FL-18th's Annette Taddeo, fighting a better financed and more popular opponent, is behind by 27 percentage points — 58 to 31 — with just 11 percent undecided.

Posted in Florida | 1 Comment

Calling My Senator About FISA [Updated]

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

I called Senator Nelson's (D-Fl) office today to find out what his position was on the Dodd-Feingold-Leahy Amendment to FISA. (I used the great tool set up to help voters make these FISA calls as an experiment and it worked perfectly. Try it, it's free.) The amendment would remove the immunity provision from the bill, making it less bad in one respect, although still bad in others.

Only problem is, the two staff people I spoke to said they did not know how the Senator plans to vote. It seems strange to me that on a matter of such public interest neither the front-line staff nor the person who happened to be in the press office (not the actal press secretary) would know, but there you have it. Maybe Floridians have not been calling in droves. (This is your chance, guys.)

The staff were very charming, took my number, said they'd try to find out and would call me back.

Interestingly, saying I was a law professor got not a spark of reaction. But mentioning that I have a blog…that got their attention.

Update: I received the following email:

Nelson supports new intelligence-gathering legislation that enables the U.S. to get the information it needs to stop terrorist plots – as long as the final version contains protections for our civil liberties, such as requiring a court order before any American is targeted for eavesdropping.

Previously, in committee, he offered an amendment to deny telephone companies immunity for prior acts. That was defeated.

Subsequently, on the Senate floor, he offered an amendment to have the FISA court review requests for immunity. That amendment was defeated, too.

And, last week he co-sponsored an amendment that would allow the federal courts to determine whether the telephone companies acted in good faith and with reasonable belief that compliance with the government requests was lawful. The Senate has not acted on the amendment.

The current version of the legislation requires federal courts to review legal opinions that the telephone companies received from the government. Nelson will support that approach.

Mara Sloan
Press Assistant
United States Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL)
716 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510