Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Worst. President. Ever.

George W. Bush has set a new record of unpopularity:

Bush reached an unwelcome record. By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they “strongly disapprove” of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974.

This seems as good an occasion as any to re-open the debate started here almost two years ago. In Discourse.net: Worst President Ever? I asked if GWB was the worst President ever. Readers were pretty persuasive that he was only a runner-up to James Buchanan.

But a lot has happened in two years: torture, politicization of every office of government, beating drums of war with Iran, poor management of relations with Pakistan, the dollar collapse, the deficit, the increasing inequality, the vetoes, the quagmire in Iraq (and the stop-losses), the forgetting of Afghanistan and New Orleans, one could go on and on and on.

So now I am prepared to remove the question mark.

What say you all?

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | 20 Comments

But Not R-Rated

cash advance

That high?

Posted in Discourse.net | 2 Comments

Wikipedia Edit Voyeurism

WikipediaVision (beta). Anonymous edits to English Wikipedia (almost) in real-time.

Posted in Internet | Comments Off on Wikipedia Edit Voyeurism

GW Bush Out of Office Countdown Calendar

The nice people at Sourcebooks Publishing sent me two copies of “The Out of Office Countdown Calendar,” which covers “2008 Though the Glorious End! (Jan. 20, 2009).”

bush-2008.gifIt's graced by little quotes from our feckless leader, such as these:

“Unfair but truthfully, our party has been tagged as being against things”

“This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating.”

“If this were a dictatorship, it's be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.”

Thank you, and keep the blog swag coming!

Posted in Blog Swag | 3 Comments

Ethical Questions

Looking for some ethical questions? Look no further than Kaimipono Wenger, Reparations and Net Benefit which tries to deconstruct defenses based on claims (not always plausible) of accident benefit to the victim.

Or, for something superficially less grim, see James Grimmelmann, Is Gold Farming Mandatory? A Question in Applied Virtual World Ethics

Posted in Law: Criminal Law, Virtual Worlds | Comments Off on Ethical Questions

Paranoia By a Master of the Genre

Further evidence that I am insufficiently paranoid: Dispatches from the Frozen North runs with my post on the Swede who emailed the FBI that his son-in-law was a terrorist in order to scuttle a business trip (Foreigners Still Don't Realize How Dumb Our Government Is).

He has some great scary scenarios which are likely being adopted by al Queada right now, now that he's spelled them out (and the likely over-reactions) in such lovely detail.

Only problem is that the FBI is now interviewing the author. (This last part is, I think, a joke.)

Posted in National Security | Comments Off on Paranoia By a Master of the Genre