Monthly Archives: December 2003

62.213.67.122 Banned

Posted on December 21, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

I've banned IP address 62.213.67.122 from posting to discourse.net after deleting a handful of Dadaist-seeming comments (e.g. “'Of course' is the cyanide of the mind”) none of which were objectionable in themselves, but all of which linked the plausible author names to sex sites. If this banning action causes any legit users pain, I hope they send me email so I can reconsider. I don't think the ban applies to email, just posting.

Posted in Discourse.net | 3 Comments

Domain Names and CAFTA Sounds Like A Bad Mix Too

Posted on December 20, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

It's very hard to tell for sure from the online summary, but it looks as if the the new “Central American Free Trade Agreement ” (CAFTA) has the same nasty domain name and ICANN rules as did the the unlamented IP sections of the FTAA. Here's what the press release says:

State-of-the-Art Protection for U.S. Trademarks
· Requires a system to resolve disputes about trademarks used in Internet domain names, which is important to prevent “cyber-squatting” with respect to high-value domain names.

How do we get Congress to realize the absurdity of making national law subsurvient to a private corporation's whims?

Posted in Law: Trademark Law | Comments Off on Domain Names and CAFTA Sounds Like A Bad Mix Too

More Good News

Posted on December 19, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

It's surely just a random fluctuation [Memo to self: do not become hopeful. Do NOT become hopeful. It just leads to pain.], but here's some more news suggesting that official abuses against people's rights — the sort that the mainstream establishment types in and out of the media claim don't happen and are only harped on by cranks — might actually not get forgotten.

Item: According to Miami Herald columnist Jim DeFede, 'Miami Model' of FTAA security is lightning rod, AFL-CIO Sec-Tres Richard Trumka

has made it his personal mission to settle the score with Miami city leaders and its police force for what happened during the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit last month.

''The American labor movement is committed, and I am personally committed, to see that the brutality we saw never happens again anywhere in this country,'' he said Tuesday during an AFL-CIO meeting to gather testimony from people who say they were abused by the police.

The often emotional meeting lasted four hours. ''The stories were worse than I imagined,'' Trumka said afterward.

He said the AFL-CIO would call on its friends in Congress and throughout the country to 'help us stop `the Miami Model' in its tracks so it can never raise its ugly head again.''

The 'Miami Model' has already become code for oppressive police work and suppression of dissidence. It's a bit unfair, as the model was actually perfected long ago, and has been used abroad at other summits, but Miami was perhaps the first town in several years to apply the model in the US.

Item: Washington Post reports that Tapes Show Abuse of 9/11 Detainees, so the abuse that previously didn't exist at all has now been upgraded to “as many as 20 guards were involved in the abuse, which included slamming prisoners against walls and painfully twisting their arms and hands” and “a pattern of physical and verbal abuse” although the Justice Dept. position (pre-judging the merits?) is that it is “unfortunate that the alleged misconduct of a few employees detracts from the fine work done by the correctional personnel at MDC and around the nation, who conducted themselves professionally and appropriately.”

Posted in Civil Liberties, Miami | Comments Off on More Good News

Wheels of Justice Grind Slow…But Grind They Do

Posted on December 19, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Larry Solum summarizes the 2nd Circuit decision in Padilla v. Rumsfeld, which saves me a lot of typing.

Also, the 9th Circuit is reported to have decided that the Guantanamo detainees have a right to lawyer! See the AP Report. The case is Gherebi v. Bush, 03-55785, and if anyone has a link, please post it in the comments.

Posted in Civil Liberties, Guantanamo | Comments Off on Wheels of Justice Grind Slow…But Grind They Do

2nd Circuit Rules US to Remain a Free Country

Posted on December 18, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

It looks from this AP Report as if the 2nd Circuit believes that this is still a free country. The story begins,

“President Bush does not have power to detain American citizen Jose Padilla, the former gang member seized on U.S. soil, as an enemy combatant, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

“The decision, which ordered that Padilla be released from military custody within 30 days, could force the government to try the “dirty bomb'' plot suspect in civilian courts.”

The full decision is here and the dissent here.

Having just arrived in the UK, after a slightly delayed journey (the luggage handler serving the second plane broke down when they needed to remove a bag whose owner had not boarded the flight) I'm not even going to try to read them until I get over the jet lag. But I'll sleep better for knowing that the 'Rule of Law' still has some traction in the US. Although 2-1 is a slimmer margin than I'd like. (That the decision sounds, from the AP story, to be based on statutory — or lack of statutory — grounds rather than on the Bill of Rights is not in itself disturbing. Even if this is an atrocious offenese against the Constitution, it's appropriate for courts to rule on the narrowest grounds available. But like I said, I'm not reading it until tomorrow at the earliest.)

Posted in Civil Liberties | Comments Off on 2nd Circuit Rules US to Remain a Free Country

Notes on Travel (Pitfalls of Orbitz Dept.), Xmas in the Dark, and an Uncertain Number of Septic Tanks

Posted on December 17, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Assuming the existence of some future point when I have more energy, I will explain further why our bedroom is now in a different part of the house, and why my desk is in that room too. The story involves architects, a contractor, vast sums of money, permits, the acquisition and filling of a 10×15 climatically controlled storage space, the expectation of permits, an as-yet-undetermined number of real and proposed septic tanks, vast sums of money, the partial destruction of our kitchen, the Sisyphean expectation of the final permits, and of course random and unpredictable delay.

Meanwhile, however, as we appear to have hit a period of delay until the waveform number of future septic tanks collapses to an integer and either produces a permit or a lawsuit, I have cancelled my plans to cancel my plans to go to England for two weeks of Xmas revel with the in-laws. Rather than stay here and grade exams, I will use my ticket. [Much more than you probably want to know about the dangers of buying air tix online in the extended entry.]

I am not the only person I know who abandons Miami when the weather is at its coolest (ie just warm), driest (ie just a little damp) and most perfect in order to go spend a fortnight in the exciting outskirts of Didsbury, a suburb in the outskirts of Manchester, England, which is a somewhat dark and wet and cold and dark and wet and cold place at this time of year. After all, my wife and children do it too. But they are 50 to 100% British, so they may be genetically predisposed to enjoy four daily hours of what is euphemistically called “sunlight”. (Lest I be suspected of Manchester-bashing, it's a great town, and often very nice in the summer time.)

I intend to keep adding to the blog while in Didsbury, but as my internet access will be POTS rather than broadband, and metered POTS at that, I may have fewer posts, and they are likely to have much more about England and the rest of the UK than is the normal fare here.

Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures in Remodeling, Personal | Comments Off on Notes on Travel (Pitfalls of Orbitz Dept.), Xmas in the Dark, and an Uncertain Number of Septic Tanks