Monthly Archives: December 2003

Do They Still Have Shame in New England?

Posted on December 17, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Another example of why we need to bring back shame to politics. (Honor and decency would be better, but shame at least provides a decent simulacrum).

Having admitted he got free work on his home from contractors (bribes? kickbacks?) and from aides (theft of public services? extortion?), and then lied about it (amazingly, the press is clearly more comfortable saying this part was wrong), Connecticut Governor Roland is hanging tough: Rowland Vows to Stay On as Governor. It's not even his first offense! “Earlier this year, Mr. Rowland paid a State Ethics Commission fine for paying less than market value for vacations at home owned by people who did business with the state.”

That there is as little shame among the political class in New England as there is in California is hardly surprising. What's interesting is whether the New England public is quite as inured to this as the folks who voted for Schwarzenegger. The NYT story suggests that it might not just blow over: A University of Connecticut poll released this week showed that 55 percent of Connecticut residents thought the governor should resign. Four newspapers called for him to step aside and some lawmakers have even talked about the possibility of impeachment.”

Wouldn't it be a change to have an impeachment trial about an impeachable offense?

Posted in Politics: US | 1 Comment

A Good Article

Posted on December 17, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Michael D. Birnhack & Niva Elkin-Koren, The Invisible Handshake: The Reemergence of the State in the Digital Envitonment, 8 Virginia J. of L. & T 6 (2003).

This is the sort of article that crystalizes a lot of things you maybe sorta half-knew or half-understood and puts them all together. It's about how the state was always there, even in the supposedly liberarian online environment, and how it turned to new gatekeepers and control nodes to remain dominant, taking advantage of the public/private distinction to use 'private' means to do things that would be much harder if attempted with 'public' tools.

Posted in Readings | 3 Comments

An Interesting Analysis of Bush Poll Numbers

Posted on December 17, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Conventional wisdom will soon converge on the surprising failure of the Saddam capture to produce any long-term move US public opinion. You read it here first (don't miss the “chopped down Christmas Tree”!).

Posted in Politics: US | 1 Comment

Too True: “The Eight Fallacies of Distributed Computing”

Posted on December 17, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Peter Deutsch's classic is reprinted by the always entertaining Risks Digest

Essentially everyone, when they first build a distributed application, makes the following eight assumptions. All prove to be false in the long run and all cause big trouble and painful learning experiences.

1. The network is reliable
2. Latency is zero
3. Bandwidth is infinite
4. The network is secure
5. Topology doesn't change
6. There is one administrator
7. Transport cost is zero
8. The network is homogeneous

Truth hurts. And having unplugged at home from the direct ethernet connection and returned to relying on wireless…from a new desk position that is just at the edge of its range for decent signal strength…let me tell you that latency can get much bigger than zero.

Posted in Sufficiently Advanced Technology | Comments Off on Too True: “The Eight Fallacies of Distributed Computing”

Wouldn’t It Be Nice to Have an Attorney General Who Wasn’t Embarrassing?

Posted on December 17, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

FEC Fines Ashcroft's Senate Bid For Breach … and ….

Judge Rebukes Ashcroft for Gag Violation. Personally, I think this deserved much more than a slap on the wrist. The AG should be held to the highest standards and ought to set a better example than this.

Please understand: there have been a lot of bad AG's over the years. Ed Meese. John Mitchell. But there have also been a lot of good ones. We shouldn't have to settle for this.

Posted in Law: Everything Else | Comments Off on Wouldn’t It Be Nice to Have an Attorney General Who Wasn’t Embarrassing?

Safire On Why ‘Anti-Privacy’ Applies to Cheney’s Energy Task Force

Posted on December 17, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Whatever his other peculiarities, William Safire has always been good on privacy — having been wiretapped himself by Nixon he understands how intrusive it is to have the government recording you. Today he shows he's good on anti-privacy too, that is the freedom of information: Behind Closed Doors. Of course, working in a profession which depends on access to public information may have helped inform this view.

The Bush administration's position in the Cheney energy task force case is maximalist. If there were a term beyond “extreme” I'd use it. Deciding in its favor would tilt the separation of powers much further towards the White House; deciding against it only preserves the status quo.

Continue reading →

Posted in Law: Constitutional Law | Comments Off on Safire On Why ‘Anti-Privacy’ Applies to Cheney’s Energy Task Force