Monthly Archives: November 2005

Ralph Reed At UM Tomorrow (Updated)

Posted on November 9, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

I probably won’t be able to make this one, and if I did I’m not sure I could keep down my lunch while listening to a lecture on “Values and Politics” from Ralph Reed — the guy who orchestrated the campaign painting Max Cleland — of all people! — as anti-American…but if I did, what should I ask him?

Ralph Reed, who chaired the Georgia Republican Party in 2002, has worked on seven presidential campaigns, and served as chairman of the Southeast Region for Bush-Cheney ’04, will lecture on “Values and Politics in America” as part of the University’s President’s Lecture Series on Thursday, November 10, at 6:30 p.m. at the School of Business Administration’s Storer Auditorium.Thursday, November 10 6:30 p.m. Storer Auditorium. Open to the UM Community.

Actually, if I had the chance, the event I’d like to crash is this one:

Media Advisory for Thursday, November 10, 2005

The University of Miami invites members of the media to a lecture and interview opportunity with Ralph reed at 5:30 P.M.

Update: Oooh, Reed is apparently deeply involved in the Abramoff Indian Gambling Scandal. What a good choice of a person to have to lecture students on “Values and Politics”.

2nd Update: You don’t suppose we are paying him, do you?

Posted in U.Miami | 3 Comments

‘Snowclone’ Has Melted?

Posted on November 9, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

A little while ago I noticed a Wikipedia entry for a cute neologism, “Snowclone”, which was defined as something like, “the some-assembly-required adaptable cliché frames for lazy journalists” or “cliches that exist as templates, i.e. 'an X shade of Y' or 'X is the new Y'”

The primal snowclone appears to be “If Eskimos have N words for snow, X surely have Y words for Z.”

Wikipedia used to have a cute entry for these, but to my shock it is no more. Go to the entry for Snowclone, and not only has the entry been deleted, but it has been replaced with a note saying “This page has been deleted, and should not be re-created without a good reason.”

Well, ok, I can always go back to the page history and at least copy the cute definition and examples, right? Wrong. Where I would expect to find the old versions, I find instead a stern note: “This article has been deleted. The reason for deletion is shown in the summary below, along with details of the users who had edited this page before deletion. The actual text of these deleted revisions is only available to administrators.”

Apparently, while I wasn't looking “This article was successfully voted to death on VFD early this month.”

Snowclone melted. But I'm sure it will be back.

Meanwhile, get your snowclone links while they're…still hot.

Posted in Internet | 4 Comments

Steven Clemons Is Shrill (For Good Reason)

Posted on November 8, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Steven Clemons, who managed almost single-handedly to block the Bolton nomination in the Senate without ever getting shrill, has been pushed over the edge into shrillness by the GOP’s latest evil, ham-handed, maneuvering:

Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert have asked House Intel Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra and Senate Intel Committee Chairman Pat Roberts NOT to look into the subject of the hidden sites America has for secretly holding prisoners and detainees — but to look into who LEAKED that information to Dana Priest at the Washington Post.

…

This just makes me sick. Frist still has not learned that the White House has burned him over and over again. And now he is playing their shill once more.

But though I have opposed Frist’s general take on the war and these issues for some time — it’s still very difficult for me, just as an American citizen — to watch any leader, Republican or Democrat, implicitly endorse the notion that America has the right to indefinitely hold without due process any prisoners or detainees in some systemized fashion.

This is what the Soviet Union did. This is what Maoist China did. This is what America fought the Cold War against! Yes, we are fighting and dealing with horribly dangerous people in the world — but they must be brought to justice in courts of law before American and global peers.

Frist and Hastert have both blighted their careers with this letter. It’s outrageous — and they should immediately retract this effort to lynch leakers rather than holding the Executive Branch accountable for serious infractions of human rights and our legal norms.

I need a new category for this post. Like ‘Sickening Irony’ or ‘Total Lack of Shame’ or something.

Posted in Politics: The Party of Sleaze, Torture | 2 Comments

And Ohio (Again!) Too

Posted on November 8, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Swing State Project: Day Begins With Vote Machines Problems.

Lovely. Just lovely.

Posted in Law: Elections | Comments Off on And Ohio (Again!) Too

‘A Republic, If You Can Keep It’

Posted on November 8, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

An astute reader emailed me the link:

Voters report problems with voting machines in Roanoke Co.: News 7 has received calls from several voters in at least four different precincts who say their votes for Tim Kaine were not recorded or took several attempts to go through.

They contend the electronic touch screens repeatedly indicated they were voting for Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore instead of registering their intended vote for his Democratic opponent Tim Kaine.

The questions are 1) is this story accurate; 2) is this a more widespread problem in the state; 3) when are we going to junk these machines?

Posted in Law: Elections | Comments Off on ‘A Republic, If You Can Keep It’

David Howarth, MP, Front Bencher, Stages A Different Sort of Sit-In

Posted on November 8, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

My friend David Howarth, MP for Cambridge City, is getting a good press:

Sofa, so good for MP who is winning battles large and small:THE best moment of David Howarth’s six months as Cambridge MP came on Wednesday when the opposition parties and Labour rebels came within one vote of defeating the Government over their Anti Terror Bill.

Only David Blunkett marching through the “aye” lobby just hours after quitting the Cabinet saved Tony Blair’s bacon over a new offence of glorifying terrorism.

Mr Howarth told me: “That was undoubtedly the best moment of my time at Westminster. I was very surprised.

“When I came here I thought voting would just be a way of registering a protest and a challenge to the Government. I never thought we could get the majority down to one.

“In the previous two parliaments the lowest it got was three, over tuition fees.

“But now we appear to have got the Government to change its mind about aspects of the Terrorism Bill. We’ve got to keep up the pressure.”

The strangest thing that has happened is the attempts of the House of Commons’ authorities to claim back the sofa in his office. Perhaps they think that the offending pieces of furniture encourage unwanted intimacy in Westminster offices.

But Mr Howarth is having none of it: “I share an office with Cheltenham MP Martin Hallwood. We have a desk at either end and two armchairs and a sofa in the middle.

“They keep coming round to try to get the sofa but we just sit on it until they go away. They’re not having our sofa.”

Posted in UK | Comments Off on David Howarth, MP, Front Bencher, Stages A Different Sort of Sit-In