Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

In Praise of the 50-State Strategy

Posted on October 1, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

The Sunday New York Times Magazine has a well-written article by Matt Bai profiling DNC Chair Howard Dean and his 50-state strategy: spend less money on media and GOTV in the small number of seats that are known to be contested months before the election and instead build a fully national field organization. The article is entitled, The Inside Agitator.

I thought it was especially ironic to see public doubts being expressed by the people who’ve been losing elections year after year during the very weekend that Democrats are poised to pick up Mark Foley’s seat here in Florida. You need a full court press not only to keep the other side from being able to concentrate its money, but also because you never know where something could happen.

Posted in Politics: US: 2006 Election | 3 Comments

Who Are the Members of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children?

Posted on October 1, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

It’s easy to find the membership list of the Senate Caucus on Missing, Exploited, and Runaway Children.

Oddly, today, I can’t find the membership list for the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus anywhere. Google has let me down.

The Senate Caucus web page has a link for The Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus at http://www.house.gov/lampson/CMECC.htm but that page is missing because Rep. Lampson lost his seat. (He’s now running in TX-22, DeLay’s old seat. Oh the irony.) Seems the Senate Caucus doesn’t update its links very often.

Archive.org hasn’t visited Lampson’s page since 2004, which is probably when it stopped existing. Back then it listed three leaders of the caucus:

Rep. Nick Lampson, (D-TX) CHAIRMAN & FOUNDER
Rep. Bud Cramer, (D-AL) CO-CHAIRMAN
Rep. Mark Foley, (R-FL) CO-CHAIRMAN

Thanks to archive.org I was able to find that in 2004 the House Caucus boasted 150 members — but even there I couldn’t get the list, just a “Data Retrieval Error”.

It would be good to have that list — a target-rich environment, even if an article from July, 2006 in US Fed News suggests the number of members may have dropped to 136.

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics: The Party of Sleaze | 6 Comments

GM Responds to Complaints About its Pitchman

Posted on October 1, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

GM’s Response to the furore about it choosing Sean Hannity as its new pitchman can be found at Think Progress.

Posted in Econ & Money | Comments Off on GM Responds to Complaints About its Pitchman

Predatorgate Scandal Spreads

Posted on October 1, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

The New York Times promotes the Predatorgate cover-up to a full page one scandal.

Glenn Greenwald has excellent play-by-play of the more recent developments.

One unanswered question: What On Earth were these people thinking? When they decided to take the cover-up option rather than investigate, were they really so arrogant as to think they could sweep it all under the rug? So uncaring as to the possible consequences for Senate pages that they didn’t even want to find out if there was a serious problem? Or so clubby and confident in each other that they believed their colleague’s assurances that there was nothing to worry about?

Maybe. Then again, remember this important rule about the modern GOP: Even when you factor in that they are much worse than you think, they’re still much worse than you think.

In that spirit, I bring you this commentary from a shrewd if also cynical e-mail correspondent:

I think that the reason that the GOP leadership allowed Foley to hang around knowing that he was a sexual predator will soon become clear: in machine politics you have to know who to trust and the only people who you can put a great deal of trust in are people who you can blackmail.

Its not a coincidence that Foley, Ney, Cunningham have been convicted, DeLay is indicted and Doolittle and Burns are facing imminent indictments. Thats the way machine politics works, the only people who can be allowed into the inner circle are people who they have the goods on.

RICO claims could be built on less.

Posted in Politics: The Party of Sleaze | 14 Comments

Shock waves Can Form Due to Steepening of Ordinary Waves

Posted on September 30, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Shock waves can form due to steepening of ordinary waves. And I see steepening waves popping up all over. For example, they’re getting a little shrill over there at Hullabaloo:

America was once a vibrant and vocal enterprise where prominent people spoke with courage and conviction. We are now a muted and sublimated culture where the opposition is cowardly, and too afraid they will be ostracized if they speak out. A once participatory and opposition-minded mainstream press is now preponderantly part and parcel of the largest institution, that amalgamation of powerful forces referred to earlier. The most influential reporters (Russert, Brokaw and their ilk) are millionaire staffers, corporate automatons, and vanity authors who have become inured to the ways and customs of their employers. The elite way of living that goes along with their wealth and social status make them less likely to question the actions of government tyrants. Yet they are the very people with the responsibility to do so, and they are the people who are in a position to do so.

Yes, they’re getting very shrill:

Now, for those of you clinging on to the delusion that what is happening isn’t what actually is happening, let me spell it out. Gingrich is floating out there the very real possibility that Bush will not abide by any Supreme Court judgment he doesn’t like. Suddenly the idea that the Supremes aren’t the final arbiter on constitutionality is something that “merits discussion” and if you don’t think this notion is going to dominate the discourse if the Supremes strike down the torture bill, well, I hate to be so blunt about it, but you are completely, totally wrong.

I expect we’ll see lots more of this before it’s over. (And if we don’t, that’s even worse.)

Posted in The Media | 1 Comment

UK Lord Chancellor: US willing to do things beyond the law

Posted on September 30, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Buried on page A12 of the Saturday (lowest weekly circulation) Washington Post, is a little lecture from the Lord Falconer. As you read this consider that this is undoubtedly a case of British understatement.

Briton Cites ‘Divergence’ With U.S.: Charles Falconer, one of the highest-ranking justice officials in Britain, said Friday that there is a “great divergence” in how Britain and the United States are handling the fight against terrorists, describing the U.S. approach as a willingness “to do things beyond the law.”

Falconer said in an interview that the practices of holding terrorism suspects without charge at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and interrogating them in secret CIA prisons have made it “harder to identify to the world what your values are.”

…

Falconer recently called Guantanamo Bay “an affront to the principles of democracy.” In a lengthy interview Friday, he said Britain had learned hard lessons in the 1970s when it pursued a hard-line course in response to the bombing campaign of the Irish Republican Army. Police got new leeway in interrogation, while suspects’ civil protections were reduced. In multiple cases, innocent people were convicted and sentenced.

“We suffered badly in the ’70s and ’80s,” Falconer said, adding that the United States was among those criticizing the British approach at the time. He also noted that IRA fundraising “shot up” during this period.

…

“Keep your justice system as pure as you can,” Falconer said. “This is advice to a friend from the experience we have had.”

…

Falconer said both countries value democracy and rule of law. But some U.S. practices are “undercutting the very values both countries adhere to,” he said.

Asked whether these practices had hurt U.S. prestige in the world, Falconer said, “it is something that is raised a lot.”

Posted in Civil Liberties, UK | 1 Comment