Monthly Archives: February 2004

Supreme Court Takes Padilla Case

Posted on February 20, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Not in any way a surprise, although it was nice to dream of a cert. denial leaving in place the Second Circuit decision finding that Constitution has not been suspended.

Now that the Supreme Court Expands Review of 'Enemy Combatant' Rule to include Padilla, the Court has almost every element of the Bush-Ashcroft re-write of the Constitution before it (the only bit missing is the secret deportation trials of immigrants—the court let stand a decision allowing these earlier in the year).

An enormous amount rides on these decisions. Losses on any of them will diminish our liberty, or our national claim to be a law-based state. But some are more essential than others—and the Padilla case is the most essential of them all, as it involves a claimed government power to grab anyone off the street in the US, hold them for ever in solitary, without lawyers, family or judicial review. That has no place in a free country.

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Truer Than Truth

Posted on February 20, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

There's something you've gotta love about this sort of inaccurate but fundamentally true coverage. In this case it happens to be of an industry press conference, but the method surely has other uses.

Lexmark takes wrap off user friendly printers: Fearlessly breaking the mold of IT marketing, the printing giant boldly commissioned a study into consumer attitudes towards printers late last year. By an enormous slice of luck, the findings just happened to confirm all Lexmark’s prejudices about the printer market.

…

Lexmark CEO Paul Curlander introduced a morale sapping day of inconclusive speeches about printers to an audience of journalists from all over Europe and South Africa. Some presenters spoke in their second (or third) language, in a move to make already turgid material even more palatable to a jaded audience. Having lost the will to live by mid morning, The INQUIRER was unable to take note of the figures produced by this study, despite their enormous gravity. For the same reason, we neglected to write down the solutions to the continuing challenge of making printers more user friendly.

But here goes. The printer market is going to be worth seventy quadrabezillion dollars, according to our memory of this event. Lexmark's projected growth could be as much as 116.9 per cent every quarter, or something, we seem to remember someone saying. In a near future timeframe, we may or may not see a day when printers can obey voice commands, such as 'Just fsking print will you' and 'no I don't want fsking letter paper. But in the meantime we'll continue to be confused by a bewildering array of features we'll never use and instructions only a seasoned photocopy engineer could understand.

Posted in Sufficiently Advanced Technology | Comments Off on Truer Than Truth

Fun With Firefox

Posted on February 20, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

I've just discovered that Firefox has 29 (!) themes available for download. I just installed the Nautilus 0.8 theme, and it put a smile on my face, which is quite an achievement before the third cup of coffee.

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Now, A Genuine Nightmare

Posted on February 20, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

The Daily Telegraph has the sequel to the story about the grad student who tried to bluff his way through economics lectures in Bejing. If that was bad, the aftermath may be worse as it involves lawyers.

Student lecturer may be sued: An Oxford engineering student who posed as an expert in global finance to deliver lectures to business leaders in China, was told yesterday that he could be sued.

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Posted in Completely Different | 19 Comments

US to Release 5/9 of UK Detainees

Posted on February 19, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

The Daily Telegraph has the story

Five of the nine British prisoners being held in Guantanamo Bay are to be released, the Foreign Office has announced.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said they would return to Britain “in the next few weeks”.

Police will consider whether they should face questioning under the Terrorism
Act 2000 when they get back to Britain, Mr Straw said.

He added that discussions were continuing with the US authorities over the other four Britons.

The five suspects to be freed are Rhuhel Ahmed, Tarek Dergoul, Jamal al Harith, Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul.

Discussions about the fate of the remaining four British detainess were ongoing, but Mr Straw said they “should be tried in accordance with international standards or returned to the UK”.

…

Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney-General, declared the Government's opposition
to the military tribunals, saying they “would not provide the type of process we would afford British nationals”.

His judgment followed an earlier ruling by the Court of Appeal which said the detainees were being held in a “legal black hole” and described their treatment as “objectionable”.

…

Rumours have been rife for many months that the detainees could be released
subject to a deal being done with their American captors.

However, a debate has raged on as to how to deal with any Britons released with critics accusing the Government of delaying negotiations because it did
not want the suspects to be tried in Britain because the evidence against them was so flimsy.

Following Mr Straw's announcement, David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, signalled that it was unlikely that the men would face trial in Britain.

He said: “I think you will find that no one who is returned in the announcement today will actually be a threat to the security of the British people.”

So there you have it: 5 out of 9 UK citizens held without charge or access to counsel or to their families for a two-year period are clearly not dangerous, and were held for extra time as hostages in a negotiation over the rights of the other four. Be proud of your country, fellow Americans.

Posted in Guantanamo | 1 Comment

The Stuff of Nightmares

Posted on February 19, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

This story is so weird that it feels made up. I imagine it also corresponds to many academics' nightmares (not mine though!)

'I blagged my way through, reading a torn-up textbook and ad libbing': An Oxford engineering student was surprised but undaunted when he was approached to deliver a series of lectures in Beijing on global economics.

Matthew Richardson knew “next to nothing” about the subject but, believing he would be addressing a sixth-form audience, he felt he could “carry it off”.

Mr Richardson, 23, borrowed an A-level textbook entitled An Introduction to Global Financial Markets from a library and swotted up on its contents on the flight from London to China.

From it he prepared a two-hour presentation, believing he had to deliver the same lecture several times over to different groups of students over three days.

Mr Richardson, who has the same name as a New York University professor who is a leading authority on international financial markets, was met at the airport and taken straight to a conference centre where, over lunch, “the horrible truth became apparent”.

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Posted in Completely Different | 4 Comments