After laying out that post, its now clear.

Hamdi broke down with Thomas claiming the President is like a king, Scalia, Stevens, and Souter throwing the book at him, and the rest of the court scrambling to pull a rabbit out of a hat to give him what he wanted, which the press dutifully misinterpreted as a strong affirmation of civil rights.

They didn't make Scalia Cheif Justice because he laid them out in Hamdi. They couldn't make Thomas Cheif Justice because hes on the fringe of the court. They don't really want a "strict constructionalist" because the constitution gets in the way of their efforts. They want a loyalist who will defer to them and not get in their way.

The confirmation is really about whether Congress wants to have some control or not.

Mehlman spoke of his disgust that activist judges are micromanaging decisions at, for example, Gitmo, decisions that should be properly made by a branch of government accountable to the electorate, in this case the Executive Branch.

The Republicans are finally getting around to spinning Miers to their incrowd. The content about Meirs is fairly lame. When somebody asks you if your nominee is going to be like a Scalia (a strict constructionalist) or a Thomas (an orignalist) "yes" is a stupid answer.

However, the above comment resonated with me. I'm really growing tired of conservatives using "strict constructionalist" to refer to any legal decision they like and "activist/legislating from the bench" to refer to any legal decision they don't like. These words actually have meanings and they aren't always consistent with your objectives. Does Mehlman really mean to call Scalia an "activist judge?"

"There shall be no law but the will of the electorate" is anti-constitutional and runs against the grain of every argument they make about their "consistent" judicial philosophy, not to mention the fundamental idea of a free society. Yes, Virginia, civil rights limit the power of the government.

Does anyone know any "liberal" lawyers who consistantly blog on SCOTUS stuff?

Blogger Conference Call, Ken Mehlman, RNC Chairman

Rattle wrote:
The best source I've found for the current West Wing floor-plan come from the Washington Post. Depending on which version is correct, Miers has an office either right down the hall from the president or on the south-west corner of the second floor. Both are prime locations.

This is an interesting post. I wonder what the date on the first picture is?

RE: White House Floor-Plan

bucy wrote:
Paul Vixie is involved with this ... I'm not sure what the point is.

Vixie explains his motivations here. The point is the demonstrate that the international community can resolve national security and national sovereignty concerns related to US control of ICANN without resorting to UN control of ICANN or fragmenting the DNS. Furthermore, as Canada has demonstrated with their privacy policies, national TLD's need not comply with ICANN regulations when they violate local laws. So there is no problem here with US control of ICANN unless other countries wish to use DNS to coerce people. More info here. Make sure you read Vixie's comment.

RE: European Open Root Server Network with IPv6 Support

The graph tracks blog mentions of Paul Krugman, Thomas Friedman, and David Brooks over the past month.

This is a really neat graph. What is even more neat is that you can make your own graphs for any keyword!

Daily Kos: The waning influence of the NYT Times columnists

Jello wrote:
Boingboing indicating that this site had stories about sex with children... I'm not exactly feeling like championing this as an example of the new war on pron, myself.

Civil liberties aren't about stuff that you like. Stuff that you like doesn't need to be protected. Freedom of speech is about speech you don't like. As I said, from what I've read this site wasn't the sort of thing that you'd really want to read. In fact I'm sure that there are some really bad people associated with it. That is very much not important. It doesn't matter who, it matters why. What is important is that they've raided someone for writing stories. Stories don't exploit people. They are expressions of thought. Even if you really really don't like them, they are expressions of thought.

If you beleive that people ought to have the freedom to determine for themselves what they want to think, and to express those thoughts if they wish, then this case ought to be a problem for you. Its a litmus test, so to speak. If you don't think that these people ought to be able to do what they are doing, then you really don't beleive that people ought to have the freedom to determine their own thoughts. If you don't have the stomach to oppose this, then you don't really get what freedom of speech is all about.

It ought to be obvious that right out of the gate the FBI isn't going to start rounding up beat poets. They haven't enforced these laws in years. They are going to start with some cases that they think are easy wins. Furthermore, this site may have been valuable because the owner seems to indicate that they may have had personally identifying information about members. Its a big laundry list of people to check out. Maybe they'll find a real criminal on the list.

But put this in context. I don't mean to raise this site as a poster child for whats wrong with this sort of effort. However, its worth noting that this has actually started, and its worth noting where it is headed. They will build upon initial successes to pursue more ambitious cases. This case creates a framework wherein communities of people who are merely using the internet to communicate thoughts may find their computer systems confiscated and the government may be able to go through the membership lists and inprison the owners. Because of what they think. That framework is a problem, and if it is allowed to take hold and blossom it threatens all kinds of things that you DO like, including sites like this one.

The next time Vile shows up and spews a bunch of intentionally offensive crap at someone he doesn't like do I need to be worried that the FBI will shut the site down? No, but that day may be coming, and it makes sense to be aware that it is much closer now then it used to be.

First they came for the communists...

RE: The Bush Administration's porn war has begun

Hugh Hewitt posts:
The near silence in the blogopshere when it comes to appeals for aid to South Asia tells me that post tsunami, Katrina and Rita, the wilingness or ability of Americans to dig deep, again, is limited.

This disaster is much worse then Katrina. Americans ought to be as helpful here as we were in the previous disasters this year.

CALIFORNIA YANKEE: How We Can Help Quake Victims

I am sorry to inform all interested parties that Red Rose Stories is a DEAD site.

The FBI has suceeded in closing me down.

I am being charged with 'OBSCENITIES' and face charges for having posted fantasy stories.

They are trying to say fantasy stories are illegal.

The men in black (FBI) took ALL of my computer equipment, and many of my diskettes,
and have access to ALL my files and site information. They came when I was NOT home and seized my belongings, I had no choice, and no recourse.

BoingBoing seems to be providing coverage of a number of cases. This one is key. My understanding is that the stories on this site were, ehm, perhaps a bit over the top. Certainly not the sort of writing one would recommend in polite company, or even, perhaps, in impolite company.

Nevertheless, they are just stories. They aren't pictures. They aren't movies. They are written stories. They are someone's thoughts. If it can be a crime to publish these stories then the only appropriate name for that sort of crime is thoughtcrime. This person's house has been raided for sharing inappropriate thoughts.

Ask your Republican friends who claim to advocate a strict constructionalist jurisprudence to explain how this is consistent with a literal reading of the first amendment.

The Bush Administration's porn war has begun

20 members of the House sent an open letter to Congressman Fred Upton, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet (part of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce), and its ranking member, Edward J. Markey. All 20 pledged their allegiance to the Broadcast Flag.

Marsha Blackburn from good ole Brentwood, TN is on this list. If you still live in her district drop her a note and explain to her that her local constituency understands technology, is aware of issues like this, and wants their computers to do what they tell them to do and not what the media industry wants them to do. There are few places in the US where so many of the local voters would be likely to be aware of this and unhappy with it.

20 US Reps support the Broadcast Flag, including Brentwood's

The discovery of two suspicious devices on the campus of Georgia Tech Monday led to the evacuation of some student residential dorms and a terrorism investigation into who left the explosives.

Occam's Razor would suggest a chemistry experiment gone ary, but given recent events this cuts rather close to home.

Bomb found at Georgia Tech