Posts

For some reason I only today became aware of Spinsanity, a seemingly non-partisan site that flags the use of “manipulative and subrational rhetoric in American politics.” The site is very well done, and the analysis is really spot on. Paul Krugman in the New York Times: An Alternate Reality From an economist’s point of view, the most revealing indicator of what’s really happening is the post- Sept. 11 fondness of politicians for “lump-sum transfers.” That’s economese for payments that aren’t contingent on the recipient’s actions, and which therefore give no incentive for changed behavior. That’s good if the transfer is meant to help someone in need, without reducing his motivation to work. It’s bad if the alleged purpose of the transfer is to get the recipient to do something useful, like invest or hire more workers. ...

Spain is not going to extradite the 8 members of the terrorist cell that they broke up last week to the United States unless we guarantee that they won’t be tried by military tribunals. In fact, chances are no European country will extradite unless we try the terrorists using normal criminal procedure, and guarantee that they won’t face the death penalty. It’s truly shocking how out of line our criminal justice system is with the systems in Europe. (Link via Interesting People.) ...

A Microsoft flack says that the foundation created by their settlement will be technology agnostic. Schools that are funded by the foundation will be free to apply for grants to purchase any hardware or software they like. The free software provided by Microsoft will obviously consist of Microsoft products. C# for Java Programmers Does anyone know what the legal recourse is for people, companies, and charities that have had their assets frozen by the US government for allegedly supporting Al Qaeda? I keep reading and hearing denials of involvement with Al Qaeda, but I have no idea what these organizations can do about the asset freeze. Just the other day, NPR had a story about Muslim charities that are on the US government list, and today I read about a Somalian ISP that’s had its assets frozen. I have no idea whether these organizations provide financial support for terrorists, but it does seem like they’re being punished without any proof of their complicity. ...

Slate Explainer: Is President Bush’s Executive Order Creating Military Tribunals Legal? One small benefit of the post-attack hysteria is that it provides certain politicians with the ideal platform for demonstrating how stupid and small-minded they really are. The latest victim of their own lack of intellect is Georgia Republican C. Saxby Chambliss, who advocated arresting every Muslim that crosses the Georgia state line. Those clever folks at Red Hat have come up with an alternative to the settlement that’s in play in the Microsoft class action cases. Making the argument that the settlement shouldn’t reinforce Microsoft’s monopoly by indoctrinating school children in the ways of Microsoft, they say they’ll provide the software and Microsoft can use the money that would go to software to buy hardware for more schools than originally planned. Quoth Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik: ...

For some reason, Launch sent me an email today telling me that they were being assimilated into Yahoo. That led me to discover that I completely missed the fact that they were acquired by Yahoo way back in July. Here’s a link to the press release. (Update: they made me merge my Launch account with my Yahoo account. Finally I get to be rafeco instead of rafeco2 on Launch. In the meantime, a lot of the collaborative filtering stuff seems to be disabled.) ...

I was as skeptical as anyone about ClearType when Microsoft announced it, but I’m here to tell you that I’m now a true believer. It doesn’t help out much on a CRT, but it makes text look about 100 times better on my laptop’s LCD. Arial normally looks hideous, but with ClearType enabled, it’s beautiful. I truly hope that Steve Wozniak’s prior art nullifies any patents Microsoft might file for ClearType so that everybody can build it into their window managers. It’s amazing. I want a nice, big LCD for my desktop machine now. (If you’re running Windows XP, you can use Microsoft’s ClearType tuning tool to tweak your ClearType settings to make it look even better.) ...

Law.com has a detailed account of the Supreme Court decision that allowed FDR to try German saboteurs in military court back in 1942. That case will most likely be cited as the precedent for the Bush administration’s current plans to try terrorists in military tribunals. The ruling that allowed the Germans to be tried before a military court is certainly nothing to be proud of or to try to duplicate today. ...

Dahlia Lithwick on the Justice Department’s new rule allowing them to listen in communications between attorneys and their clients without any sort of judicial oversight: The new rule presumes not only the guilt of the alleged terrorist, but also the complicity of his attorney. But ample protections already exist to keep lawyers from acting as terrorists’ couriers. The ethical canons forbid lawyers from conspiring with their clients to commit crimes. The laws against conspiracy make it illegal for attorneys to aid terrorist enterprises, and if the state suspects lawyers and their clients of colluding to break the law, it can quickly apply to a federal judge for a warrant to monitor these conversations. It’s hard to imagine how warrantless eavesdropping is going to provide the government with much more information than they could already have obtained through lawful methods. In exchange for all this, prisoners give up any meaningful right to consult honestly and privately with their counsel. … The Justice Department has a new agenda: indefinite detentions, acquiring information, and centralization of power. Moreover, should the Bush administration go forward with the plan to try “terrorists” (as defined by the president) in military tribunals, illegally obtained evidence may not be barred. How convenient for the Justice Department that the military may soon be able to try suspects who were detained and searched unconstitutionally, in courts that might not shed a tear over warrantless searches. ...

The Washington Post is reporting that the reward for Osama bin Laden is now up to $25 million. Considering how much the war in Afghanistan costs to wage, that’s probably a bargain for us if somebody turns him over. People in Afghanistan seem to be getting really riled about the presence of various Arabs, Pakistanis, and Chechens fighting for Osama bin Laden, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he were turned over by the Afghans. ...

NewsForge: Microsoft’s monopoly: was the settlement rigged? It’s a discussion of Assistant Attorney General Charles A. James and his involvement in the settlement. Lots of good reportage in the Washington Post today. The Post’s story in the capture of Kabul by the Northern Alliance provides lots of detail. Also of interest is the Post article on the retreat by Taliban forces. Despite the fact that the Taliban said that they abandoned Kabul to preserve the lives of civilians, they managed to steal everything they could and destroy what they couldn’t steal. It also confirms that foreign “jihadis” who came to Afghanistan to volunteer were acting as an occupying force on behalf of the Taliban: ...