The Other Dinh

I just attended a debate between two of Georgetown's constitutional scholars, Viet Dinh and David Cole. Dinh, former assistant attorney general for legal policy under Ashcroft, was the prime architect of the Patriot Act. Cole has been a vocal critic of the administration's war on terror especially the treatment of foreign nationals, a critque he summarizes in his new book, Enemy Aliens.

The audience clearly had their favorite. After praising the Georgetown community, Dinh paused for applause but received none. "There's a lot of love in the room today," he joked. But although many students and professors who attended the debate agreed with Cole, I suspect that the majority came to hear Dinh, who, for all the variety of opinion at the law school, is a minority voice on the faculty.

Dinh's Republican views were shaped by his family's hardship in Vietnam. His father was held as a political prisoner by the Vietnamese communists in the late 70s. Dinh escaped with his siblings and mother as boat refugees to Malaysia where they were welcomed by gunshots from a patrol boat. They later moved to southern California where Dinh worked in a sewing shop and fast food restaurant. Partly because of the Republican party's hardline stance against communism, Dinh became an active member participating in the Whitewater investigations.

Dinh said he started out at the Justice Department with the intention of reforming immigration law in two ways: one in establishing a "return to the rule of law in immigration policy" and another in liberalising the policy to allow more immigrants. While significant improvements had been made in enforcement, Dinh admitted that the relaxation of immigration laws had not happened.

To Cole's mention abuses during the detention of hundreds of immigrants, Dinh responded, "Mistakes will happen."

But overall, Dinh was unapologetic for the Bush administration's policies: "The President should have the power to detain an enemy combatant during a war against terror where combatants are not always in the battlefield. Make no mistake about it, September 11th was an act of war."

The Law Equivalent of Medical Student Syndrome

Medical student syndrome is a psychological condition where a student's frequent study of illnesses leads her to believe that she in fact suffers from these conditions. A similar phenomenon occurs with law students although I wonder if they ever recover. Law student syndrome is when the frequent study of cases about often vindictive and obsessive people leads the student to take on these characteristics.

And That Goes for You Too

Bush is expected to sign the Do Not Call List into law today. Bush's spokesperson, Scott McClellan, says the president thinks people "should have the right to prevent unwanted telemarketing calls that are intrusive and annoying." But this act only allows you to block commercial calls and not those from non-profits or -surprisingly enough- calls from political parties. Why are sales calls anymore annoying than someone calling for campaign donations or firemen calling about tickets for a fundraising ball? If Congress and the president were really interested in preventing annoying intrusions, they should apply it to themselves.

Congress Should Leave DC Alone

Yes! A cogently written advocation for an end to Congressional exploitation of Washington DC. DC's need for authority over local issues is something both right and left should agree. The Capitol has no Congressional representation and doesn't even have the power to decide issues outside of federal affairs.

You'll notice that the authors served in Republican administrations and hence would support gun ownership and school vouchers, both ideas that Congress is considering implementing. But despite their agreement with these policies, they still find it incredibly unjust that DC citizens do not have any say in the matter.

Edward Said Has Died

Columbia Professor Edward Said, author of the classic "Orientalism," died today.

No Smoking on Board

While New York's smoking ban in bars and restaurants went too far in regulating privately owned space, I appreciated the benefits of having smoke-free havens. But a bill pending in the New York Assembly would even prohibit smoking in your car. Granted this is only for folks with kids, but still it's an utterly ridiculous measure. The government is trying to regulate what you do in a place you bought, you maintain and on top of that, it's trying to do the parenting for you.

In response to criticism about the NFL kickoff event on the Mall, the Senate passed legislation to limit advertisement in the park. You can read the text of the amendment.

Microsoft is cutting back on its free unsupervised chat rooms. The company says the closings are meant to prevent access to pedophiles. I'm skeptical.

Music downloaders are facing possible jail time in Australia. The country passed amendments to their copyright laws which now allow criminal prosecutions for copyright infringements. The three men, ages 20 and 19, plead guilty to the charges although it is unclear whether the record industry there will ask the court to mete out prison sentences. Slight snag for the record companies though: the guys did not charge anything for the file sharing.

In the US a lack of profit-making does not prevent successful criminal prosecutions. Amendments to federal copyright laws in 1997 made piracy a criminal offense even if there was no monetary gain. Last year, at least six music downloaders were handed five year prison sentences. Despite the media's bizzare tendency to make this group sound like a cult ("And their world is highly structured, with a strict hierarchy and rules." according to one New York Times article), we all know that most guilty parties are just averages schmos.

On a more serious note, the lack of profit-making shouldn't be overlooked. Music piracy is not like stealing physical property; my use of a song does not prevent your use of it. These men probably couldn't have charged much even if they wanted to because media files are readily available. Moreover music downloading is so ubiquitous that it seems even inappropriate for the law to prosecute such activity. Moreover, the music industry's campaign against individual downloaders only fuels more resentment and piracy.

Walking back from dinner, I heard trance music coming from -surprisingly enough- Capitol Hill. A DC-based organization, ROAR! (not an acronym), organized a 12-hour dance party to protest Democratic Senator Joseph Biden's Rave Act. The legislation was passed as a last minute addition to the Amber Alert Act this past spring, which makes me ask what the ROAR organizers plan since their website doesn't prescribe the next step nor has any legislator proposed undoing the act.

The Rave act makes it a crime for anyone to knowingly and intentionally "open, lease, rent, use, or maintain" a place where there is drug use or distribution. Those convicted can get up to 20 years in jail and pay $250,000 or more in fines.

On a related note, the NY Times reports that a highly controversial study which found that one night's dose of Ecstasy caused permanent brain damage has been retracted. The researchers had used speed (which is known to injure the dopamine system) instead of Ecstasy.

Finally, the event has arrived: the NFL Kickoff event and the Britney Spears concert. Construction workers, tractors and 20-foot tall speakers have occupied most of the green space of the promenade for days accompanied by a nauseating announcer saying over and over, "SERVE YOUR COUNTRY, VOLUNTEER ON AMERICA'S PUBLIC LANDS," "VANILLA PEPSI, THE NOT SO VANILLA DRINK" and "IT'S NOT JUST A SPORT, IT'S HISTORY IN THE MAKING." The Army calls it, "Operation Tribute to Freedom."

The combination of the military, pro-football and a soft drink is America at its worst. It's bad enough that the kickoff event follows up the anniversary of the Civil Rights March with ads for the Not-so Vanilla Pepsi. On top of that is the headache of timing this event at 6pm during rush-hour...though maybe I should be comforted by the prospect of Britney singing, "Oops, I Did It Again," to all the military folk.

A report in the New York Times today detailed the increasing number of people who live below the poverty line ($17,960 for a household with two parents and two children).

But the cost of living varies widely from state to state. Comparing different towns even within the same state would also show a similar discrepancy. I'm still checking out whether or not this national marker determines your eligibility for things like welfare or federal housing. I hope it doesn't.

The first day of law school was not as scary as people made it out to be. Professors called on volunteers and didn’t grill students who had incomplete answers. The professors also made sure to correct us of certain expectations of law school: “We don’t do truth, justice and equity. We do the law.”

It seems strange that you could talk about the law without discussing justice but perhaps it’s too abstract for the purposes of becoming a lawyer.