Monthly Archives: April 2004

Fafblog Doesn’t Waffle On Iraq

Posted on April 22, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

High-octane commentary from Giblets at Fafblog! the whole worlds only source for Fafblog.

Now and then I see something intelligent on the internet like this piece of reporting from Iraq from Andrew Sullivan. You know it is true because it comes from a military chaplain (he's from the military and the church – two great flavors that go great together). He explains for all the stupid people why it looks like things are getting worse in Iraq when they are actually getting not-worse:

“This country became a welfare state under Saddam. If you cared about your well-fare, you towed the line or died. The state did your thinking and your bidding. Want a job? Pledge allegiance to the Ba’ath party. Want an apartment, a car, etc? Show loyalty. …

“So, we come along and lock up sugar daddy and give these people the toughest challenge in the world, FREEDOM. You want a job? Earn it! A house? Buy it or build it! Security? Build a police force, army and militia and give it to yourself. Risk your lives and earn freedom. … they want a sugar daddy, the U.S.A., to do it all. We refuse.”

Damn straight! Giblets for one is sick of these pampered Iraqi welfare moms and their “ohhh feed my family” and their “ohhh rebuild the infrastructure you blew up.” Learn some gratitude, Iraqis! We come halfway around the world and take the time to give weapons to your dictator, start a war with him, crush your economy with sanctions, start another war, blow up your power plants and your cities and disband your police, and we did it all for you, so you could grow up to be as mature and developed a nation as we have become. And this is the thanks we get!

Freedom is not free, Iraqis! It has a price. And that price is being invaded crippled and occupied by a foreign military. If you cannot handle freedom we'll just have to hand you over to a “democracy-minded strongman.” And this one might not be the sugar daddy that Saddam was.

Cheer or cry?

Posted in Blogs | 1 Comment

ID Cards At Their Worst

Posted on April 22, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

The biggest trouble with national ID cards is that if you have an evil government, they make bad things easier.

Shanghai monitors Internet cafes: SHANGHAI'S INTERNET cafes and bars are being plagued with video cameras and hi-tech logging software, put in place by authorities to make absolutely certain no “forbidden sites” are viewed.

According to yahoo.com and the Shanghai Daily newspaper, Yu Wenchang from the Shanghai Culture, Radio and TV Administration said monitoring will begin in all 1,325 of Shanghai's geek centres by the end of June.

Banned websites include both pornographic sites and sites with “superstitious content,” such as Falun Gong, the site of a spiritual group.

A number of people have already been sent to prison for downloading and uploading banned material, and it looks like with the new system in place even more will get busted.

The newspaper report also says that all people in Internet cafes will now have to enter the number on an identification card, as proof that they are over 16 years of age. Cafes allowing underage users to surf the web will be fined at first, and if caught again they will have their licenses revoked.

It doesn't follow from this, necessarily, that ID cards make bad government more likely, or that they necessarily have the same bad effects under decent governments.

I'm certainly prepared to believe that if you have a government that wants to engage in thought control, you have much bigger problems than a little card. On the other hand, governments and indeed everyone, tend to go for what's cheap and easy. If an ID card regime makes some choices cheaper and easier than they were formerly, surely it increases the odds that people will advocate them?

Posted in ID Cards and Identification | Comments Off on ID Cards At Their Worst

Why Did the Media Suddenly Drop the Bush Military Records Issue? No One Knows.

Posted on April 22, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Long ago I asked why on earth no one seemed to care any more about the missing Bush Military records. Now comes CJR Campaign Desk: Spin Buster to ask that question again.

Campaign Desk has been curious for a while now about what happened to the story of President Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard. After the White House's February 13 Friday night data dump of all assembled records, there was little press follow-up. We never read anything that sorted through the details of the over 300 documents released to figure out what, exactly, happened back then; all we ever got was a few pieces noting that little of the information was new, and listing still-unanswered questions.

Why, exactly, did the media drop the matter?

Campaign Desk thinks it has part of the answer,

In part, no doubt, it's because some of the details seem to come down to personal memories. But that doesn't strike us as an excuse for throwing in the towel and failing to clarify a controversial story that the press had resuscitated itself (largely courtesy of Bush's “Meet the Press” interview on February 8).

In other words, Campaign Desk is mystified.

I'm not mystified. Stupefied. Incredulous. But not mystified. See, there's no Democrat banging the gong on this (and if there were s/he'd be attacked by the press for being shrill). And the press is just not up to doing the hard work itself. Haven't been since they became 'professionals' instead of working stiffs.

Plus, who's got the story for the agenda-setting New York Times? Why none other than Katherine Seeyle.

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | 6 Comments

Secret Presidential Briefing Memo Revealed!

Posted on April 22, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Thanks to special contacts who do not wish to be named, I have secured an exclusive copy of a key Presidential Daily Briefing, complete with GW Bush's own marginal notations. Click here to pop up a full size copy!. I think this document puts to rest any question of what Bush knew and when he knew it!

Posted in Completely Different | Comments Off on Secret Presidential Briefing Memo Revealed!

I Start A Legal Academics’ “Copyright Experiences Wiki”

Posted on April 20, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Prompted by discussions on various law professor mailings lists of abusive copyright demands by law reviews and legal publishers, I've set up a quick wiki for legal writers to document their copyright experiences.

I don't know if law professors — many of whom will have never seen a wiki before — can be persuaded to contribute to this, especially as the instructions I've provided are pretty light weight. But it would be nice if this caught on.

So if you have ever published in a law review or a book with an academic press that does legal topics, please consider adding your copyright experience to this database.

Posted in Law School, Law: Copyright and DMCA | 5 Comments

Wilmer, Cutler to Merge with Hale & Dorr

Posted on April 20, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

I spent three years as an associate in the London office of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering and still have warm feelings towards the firm, even though it has grown a lot in the decade plus since I was there, and there are fewer and fewer of the folks I knew. Now it's going to change (with the times?) by merging with Hale & Dorr, a Boston-based law firm, according to an email to firm alumni from WC&P managing chairman William Perlstein.

The initial word from the trade press seems positive, e.g. this item in the Washington Business Journal:

On the surface, the firms' practices mesh well: Both have strong litigation departments, and Wilmer's regulatory expertise combined with Hale and Dorr's corporate work would complement each other.

The firms' cultures also match, according to former attorneys at both firms.

“I would say that most law firm mergers are two dinosaurs mating, hoping to get a gazelle. That would not be the case here,” says Bill Flannery, president of WJF Institute, an Austin, Texas-based law firm marketing consultant. “Here you have two superior, cutting-edge, strong law firms. I'm very impressed by this merger, if in fact this is going to happen.”

Firm mergers tend to be difficult; for the sake of the folks I know at WC&P, I hope this one works out.

When I was there WC&P had a very intellectual and public-spirited culture, even in the branch offices (albeit slightly attenuated by distance); my sense is that this ethic has so far survived despite being under pressure from the exigencies of law firm economics. It's even possible, given the economies of scale in legal practice (which seems to push firms to being small boutiques or megafirms, with little room for midsize), that growth of this sort may be the only way to preserve that culture. It would be interesting, though, to hear from more recent and more senior WC&P alumni (hint).

Continue reading →

Posted in Law: Practice | Comments Off on Wilmer, Cutler to Merge with Hale & Dorr