The Memory Hole

For all Bush's talk about appreciating the sacrifice of the military,
For all his talk about sending the right messages to troops,

Why didn't he attended a single funeral or memorial of soldiers killed in action during his presidency?

The Bush administration also ended the practice of providing homecoming ceremonies for deceased soldiers and banned media coverage of their arrivals, policies which were only fully enforced when the war in Iraq began. Bush's predecessors had attended the ceremonies of the dead brought to military bases including Dover Air Base. The photos of the flag-draped coffins were released last spring after a Freedom of Information Act request and several court appeals.

If the public supports the war and trusts the president's leadership, there would be no need to hide the consequences of defending our country, least of all the images of a noble commemoration of soldiers.

Beheading the French Way

By guillotine of course.

On this day in 1977, France executed Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant convicted of murder and torture. He was the last person to be executed by the blade.

France did not abolish capital punishment until 1981.

Via the Jurist.

Yeehaw!

To broaden my understanding of the US beyond the northeast, I'm doing a summer internship in Phoenix, Arizona. The city (if you can call it that) has a sort of dual personality. In some ways, it wants to be the cheaper California, with huge malls, health shops and Hummers galore. But the liberalism of California won't make it here.

Phoenix's problem on the 4th of July: trigger-happy celebrants shooting in the air.

Later to come: Drowning lawns for West Nile virus.

Pickled Pixels

Between cartoons produced by hand or by computer, I prefer the old school. Though more accurate, computer characters look freakish; their skin looks flat, the facial expressions hollow and movements stiff.

Strangely, people respond similarly to robots. The closer an android resembles a human, the more it looks like "an animated corpse." Slate writer Clive Thompson makes a cool analogy between that phenomenon and the creepiness of computer generated people. Reading someone's face is a survival skill carefully refined through evolution. So even if a computer graphic is 99% lifelike, we will always notice that 1%.

Eee, Be-deeeh, That's All Folks!

This is the first time I've watched a formal Bush press conference (transcript)....which I don't feel so guilty about since he's only given 8 in his entire presidency (3 if you only count the ones on prime-time television). At this point into their terms, Eisenhower had given 83 conferences and Clinton had given 40.

Of course, we know why Bush doesn't do press conferences. But before forgiving him for his inability to articulate, we shouldn't forget that press conferences aren't just opportunities for reporters to showcase: they are the closest thing we have to a public forum with the president. As opposed to carefully coordinated election stops, press conferences are (or rather could be) a time for an elected leader to be put on the spot for his failures. Sadly, the conferences are increasingly scripted especially for this president. When asked a question by Time Magazine's John Dickerson, the president fumbled through, "I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it...You just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be...."

At least he didn't look at his reporters list too much.

But in a surprising end, Don Gonyea of NPR got the last question and asked a particularly critical one: "You deliver a lot of speeches, and a lot of them contain similar phrases and they vary very little from one to the next....Have you failed in any way to really make the case [for the war with Iraq] to the American public?"

On a separate note, USA Today says that John Negroponte is likely to be selected as the US "ambassador" to Iraq. As an ambassador during the Reagan administration, Negroponte was allegedly complicit in human rights abuses commited by the Salvadoran Contras and the dictatorship in Honduras.

The Idol Masses

"Unlike the general public, which would probably be capable of trimming a list of candidates down to a serviceable pop singer by the end of a season, the People are systematically ruining it for everyone. The People must be stopped."

This critique of American Idol sounds vaguely fitting as a critique of American democracy: a small rabid group of "People" with a disproportionate amount of power; leaders chosen because they are untalented and therefore more like the voter; all of which result in the general public getting turned off by the whole show.

The People are "ruining it" by clogging up the phone lines as they furiously vote multiple times for their favorite. Of course, in a political voting system, you can't vote more than once. You can however often find ways to give as much money as you want. Perhaps American Idol is an example of why we should limit that money?

I Work Hard for My Money

Powell suspends aid to Serbia which decides to pay Milosevic a salary.

Because of its refusal to extradite sixteen war crime suspects to the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Serbia-Montenegro won't be receiving about $26 million of American aid. Serbia's defense minister says the suspension would exacerbate the already struggling economy.

Apparently things aren't really that bad though because yesterday the Serbian parliament decided to pay for salaries and legal fees of Milosevic and other Serbian war crime suspects who are being tried at The Hague. In addition, the travel and mailing expenses of some family members will be covered. A lawmaker in favor of the measure said, "We will never forget how Milosevic was kidnapped and illegally sent there."

The war crimes tribunal's foreign location may have contributed to the emergence of denial and revisionism in Serbia. Trying former leaders hundreds of miles away does little to provide closure or memory within a country where the atrocities took place.

U.N. Your Buddies

Several members of the Iraqi Governing Council do not want the United Nations involved in the establishment of its permanent government.

This may come as a surprise since the organization usually carries the legitimacy of international community support. The distrust of IGC representatives grew out of the UN's handling of the Oil for Food program from which Hussein stole billions of dollars to award his friends around the world. Some Iraqis blame the UN for allowing this corruption and possibly even taking bribes in exchange for willful blindness. The UN is considering a full investigation while the IGC has already hired KPMG and Freshfields, an international law firm, to look into the allegations.

Smoking Gun

Tuesday, over 300 websites and blogs staged a 24-hour online protest over a record company's attempt to prevent them from distributing downloadable copies of "The Grey Album." The sites offered the album for download to stage 24 hours of mass copyright infringement.

"The Grey Album" mixes music from the Beatles' "The White Album" and Jay-Z's "Black Album" and was created by Brian Burton, an LA deejay who did not obtain permission from the copyright holders of the music.

Unfortunately I got sucked in by law school and missed it. But you can still find links here to download the album.

Where's the Beef?

On the surface, free trade is a mainstream idea. Opposition to it usually puts you in the loathsome ranks of Pat Buchanan.

But perhaps the supposed supporters of trade liberalization don't really get it.

The recurring wave of concern about off-shoring reflects some odd cognitive dissonance between what's good for workers and what's good for consumers. At least in theory, most politicians will support companies and individuals buying cheaper goods from foreign countries. But if it means buying cheaper labor, suddenly this is a whole different issue. John Edwards loves to wax nostalgic about when manufacturing jobs used to be in the South.

Haven't we already gone over this?

"A burgeoning trade in services provides an important outlet for U.S. expertise in sectors such as banking, engineering, and higher education. The ability to buy less expensive goods and services from new producers has made household budgets go further, while the ability of firms to distribute their production around the world has cut costs and thus prices to consumers. The benefits from new forms of trade, such as in services, are no different from the benefits from traditional trade in goods." This lucid explanation comes from Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, whose testimony before the House Joint Economic Committee describes economic concepts in manageable textbook language.

Whether it's manufacturing or services jobs, the same principle applies. Letting companies buy cheaper labor means that their resources can be allocated to other areas: research and development, dividends, price-cutting...etc. all of which will still benefit us. The other economic reason is that in the long run, placing restrictions on off-shoring would only discourage companies from ever coming here.

Then there's the moral argument: If we're really concerned about the world's less well-off and globalization's seemingly disjointed effects, then we should allow qualified Indians, Bengladeshis and Guatamelans to get the jobs which they can perform cheaper than Americans.

Europeans are from Venus, American are from Mars

News from our allies across the Atlantic:

With overwhelming support, France's National Assembly passed a ban on displaying religious symbols at state schools. The probable effect will be that Muslim girls will be expelled and have to go to Islamic schools instead.

In Helsinki, one of Finland's richest men has been
fined $217,000 (170,000 euros) for speeding because Finnish traffic fines vary according to the offender's income.

In Loco Parentis

Next reading assignment for Civil Procedure: Zealous Advocacy and Ethical Considerations

An exchange between two Chicago trial lawyers as described by Judge Marvin Aspen, U.S. District Judge in the Northern Distirct of Illinois:

"Attorney V had just asked Attorney A for a copy of a document he was using to question the witness:

Mr. V: Please don't throw it at me.
Mr. A: Take it.
Mr. V: Don't throw it at me.
Mr. A: Don't be a child, Mr. V. You look like a slob the way you're dressed,
but you don't have to act like a slob...You deny I've given you a copy of
every document?
Mr. V: You just refused to give it to me.
Mr. A: Do you deny it?
Mr. V: Eventually you threw it at me.
Mr. A: Oh, Mr. V, you're about as childish as you can get. You look like a
slob, you act like a slob."

These were two lawyers working on a multi-billion dollar case. A follow-up question in our reading: "What effect is your legal education having on your civility in law school or in daily life?"

Ideally, education is the refinement of your mind and spirit. In reality, it may be just gaining a few skills. But law school might be the unique exception where the skills you gain are questionable and you just become more of a schmuck in the process.

Perhaps the adversarial nature of the legal process is to blame. Whereas competition in business isn't zero sum (your winning doesn't mean that I lose), competition in the law usually is: when one party wins a claim, the other must lose. There's less of an incentive to work together unless you have a vague sense of working for justice even if it hurts your client.

No Jobs for You!

Want a $80,000 to $100,000 salary?

Want an exciting job and a challenging environment in a field so hot the temperature gets up to 130 degrees?

Then have we got the job for you. Work for Halliburton in Iraq.

The company hires about 400 workers a week with 7,000 in Iraq already to handle military support operations like delivering mail, driving forklifts and installing air conditioners. Most of the recruits are unemployed or underemployed Americans.

But aren't there plenty of unemployed Iraqis to hire?

WSJ to Bush: Why Not?

The Wall Street Journal now joins the chorus of those who want direct elections in Iraq.

"We've been inclined to give the Administration the benefit of the doubt on this. But the more we've listened, the more we haven't heard a good answer to the question, Why not elections? The U.S. is now in the anomalous position of having liberated Iraq in the name of democracy but opposing elections. This is adding to Iraqi mistrust of American motives and may lead to more trouble down the road."

Generally the Wall Street Journal has been cautious in its criticism of the administration's handling of Iraq. The paper did support the war. But the editorial makes the practical point that even if the caucuses result in moderate leaders taking office, their decisions would be viewed as illegitimate and increase the likelihood for a more extreme group to take hold.

Let's Settle. What's Your Screename?

Lawsuits against New York city for personal injury claims will now be settled online. New York is the first municipality to sign on with Cybersettle, a White Plains based company. The city has a backlog of 40,000 claims.

Online settling does not mean that people who want a day in court won't get it. The plaintiff can always refuse settlement offers. But settling over the internet will be cheaper for the city, and according to Cybersettle, "expedite the settlement process by eliminating posturing, personality conflicts and phone tag."

Would it be good to replace a normal court hearing with this? I think it wouldn't hurt to make it an option if both parties agree to it. If neither party wants the trouble of travelling to the court, of the attorney costs in preparing for oral argument...etc., we should let them use an alternative method of litigation that still has a judge and legal procedure but costs much less and takes less time.

Should it be required? No. Even if you had live dialogue online, there's still a difference in having the ritual of a hearing in court and having it over the internet. Perhaps that distinction will become less important over time but I doubt it because the internet has still not replaced the satisfaction we get from in-person contact.

Dukes of "As A"

1) The Superbowl:
While I've thrown off most of the authoritarian tendencies of my urban planning background, I still retain an abhorrence for the money we splurge on professional sports, stadiums and other trappings. Of all the things that cities could waste their money on.....And now they won't even let us see some boob.

2) As a (fill in the blank)
Read any letters to the editor section and you will see it everywhere. "As a mother of three, I think that income taxes should be increased." "As a white heterosexual, I think that Latinos should be called Hispanics"...etc.

In rare instances is the as-a phrase informative or even relevant. The author may believe that this device adds to his credibility, but it has the exact opposite effect: as-a suggests that his perspective is only valid because of his background and not because of any strength of reason or factual accuracy.

Alright, I'm no po-mo. I admit to being supremely uncool.

The Middle

From the Guardian's review of the history of prisoner exchange in light of the recent trade between Israel and Hizbullah:

"During the Hundred Years' war, the French had a penchant for cutting off the index and middle fingers of captured English archers, then turning them free in the knowledge that they were no longer militarily useful. The bowmen who remained unmutilated, it is said, used to wave their fingers at the enemy in a gesture that remains well known to naughty schoolboys and sufferers from road rage."

Wouldn't they have raised both their middle and their index finger then?

Beautiful Corpse

From the name Body Worlds Show, I expected a body builder competition of thoroughly tanned oiled physiques. But instead it's an exhibition of plastinated skinless cadavers (though probably with the same muscle-fat ratio as a body builder.) One plays chess with part of his cranium falling off. Another raises his arm lifting his flayed skin. Last week, a German was acquitted for his attack on a sculpture called, "The Organ Donor," which was a man holding his liver.

The creator of the exhibit is Dr. Gunther von Hagens, who created the plastination process where the fluids of the body are replaced by resins. He looks more like mortician than a medical doctor. The black hat certainly doesn't help.

Most of the bodies were donated directly to Dr. Hagens Institute of Plastination although some critics speculate that some bodies bought from medical institutes may those of prisoners, homeless or the mentally insane.

"It will democratise anatomy," Hagens claims, "make us understand our bodies better....They have to see it in a tasteful manner and not bottled up like pickles."

Hagens' sculptures are perfectly lean figures, nothing like you would find here. If he brings the show to the US, hopefully, he'll do make an American line of cadavers covered in puffy yellow lipids.

Kosherly Speaking

The ever hopeful speakers of Esperanto have tried for more than 70 years to get the UN to adopt the international language. But perhaps they would be more successful if they pursued noninstitutional routes instead.

Say, by getting candidates to speak it while they campaign?

My favorite quotation this week from the presidential trail comes from Joe Liberman: "Viva Chutzpah!"

Okay, it's not Esperanto and the phrase actually came from a Latina woman who attended a Gore rally. But perhaps it's a sign of a future American language which would be a bit of Spanish, English and....Yiddish.

Yes, Yiddish. I have the weight of Eugene Volokh and Alex Kozinski to back me up on this. Volokh, a law professor at UCLA and Kozinski, have observed that Yiddish is replacing Latin as the language of American legal authority.

I knew there was a good reason why I went to school in New York.

Gawker Arrives!

Does DC have enough of a social scene for a gossip page?

Sorry, let me rephrase that: Does DC have enough of an interesting social scene to have its own gossip page?

If anyone can answer that, it's Gawker, a wonderfully bitchy website on the lives of New York fashionistas, celebrities and any other characters of local reknown. Gawker will now bless DC. Enter The Wonkette. The name is rather unfortunate but the site looks promising. Anything that brings a bit of brassy New York to dismal DC is a good thing.

P roviding A ppropriate T ools R equired...to Screw the Little Guy

A US District Court in Los Angelos has ruled that a portion of the Patriot Act is unconstitutional. This is the first time that a section of the Act has been found in violation of the Constitution. The portion in question prohibited giving advice or assistance to groups designated international terrorist organizations.

The case was argued by Georgetown professor, David Cole, author of Enemy Aliens - and more importantly, my constitutional law professor.

How Much Am I Worth?

If you sold every tissue of your body, you (actually your next of kin) could make $45 million, according to a survey by Wired.

Here is a more extensive article on body parts you can sell, legally and illegally.

The Ninth Circus

Judges occupy an exalted status in the American legal system. Because judges have so much discretion in interpreting the law and their opinions influence future decisions (precedent or in legalese, stare decisis), law students spend most of the time reading judicial opinions --and not statutes-- to learn what the law is. After the first few months, you start to find out which judges are your favorites and read their opinions with the same delight as you would reading fiction by your favorite author.

Alex Kozinski is definitely going to be on my list. A wacky judge on the Ninth Circuit, Kozinski is known for taking his law clerks paintballing and snowboarding and signing e-mails as "The Easy Rider." He's also earned a reputation for his unconventional opinion writing.

“It is wrong to use some constitutional provisions as springboards for major social change," he wrote, "while treating others like senile relatives to be cooped up in a nursing home until they quit annoying us.”

Legal Affairs has a wonderful profile which also provides a detailed look at how the criminal justice system works.

It's much better than the criminal justice reading I'm supposed to be doing now....

Kerry-zy

"Participants in today's political tussles always prefer to debate 'how much' rather than 'whether'," wrote professor Richard Epstein of the University of Chicago law school (otherwise known as the school of law and economics). Rather than debating whether there should be a minumum wage or incomes taxes, most political discussion focuses only on how much we should increase or decrease whatever governmental program.

Shockingly enough, Epstein would find an ally in Democratic candidate John Kerry. Well, the John Kerry of 1996 that is. The then senatorial candidate called for a reduction in federal bureaucracy by dissolving the Departments of Energy and Agriculture.

I know that Kerry supported NAFTA but this position goes beyond Clintonesque politics.

Too bad Kerry will eventually retract it.

Say What?

The Arab world has never had a democracy. But while its simplest form, a direct election, is fairly easy to understand, the Bush administration would like the first democratic election in Iraq to take the more complicated form of a regional caucus.

The word doesn't even exist in Arabic.

In the US, I would guess that not many Americans know how a caucus works either. Several websites on the upcoming election include explainers.

So it is understandable why Iraqis don't like Bush's election plan. The opposition of one powerful Shiite leader led to the protests of 20,000 Iraqis. While the president of the Iraqi Governing Council has expressed reserved support for regional causes, he's also admitted that, "The best way to elect legislative bodies is through direct and general elections if there is enough time to conduct these elections."

Why is there no time?

Despite the excuses of a lack of election law or voting rules, the real reason boils down to the American presidential election. Bush wants the transfer over and done with before the general election starts so he can point to some tangible accomplishment and not be as weighed down by the troubles in Iraq. Although a direct election would probably garner more Iraqi support and confirm for them that things have really changed, it would delay an added item on Bush's to-do list.

Palestinian Checkmate

Last Thursday, Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei took an unusual step. If peace talks continued to stall, he said, Palestinians would push for a bi-national Jewish-Arab state instead of independence.

A spokesman for Sharon doubted the credibility of the threat, "They are threatening themselves, not us."

But Mr. Qurei's plan would have challenged the very core of Israeli nationhood. Current demographic trends indicate that Arabs will outnumber Jews within a few years in the combined areas of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (today's those numbers stand at 4.7 million Palestinians and 5.5 Jews). Arabs would be a forceful political majority in an Israeli democracy.

Qurei's tactic rather than Sharon's wall is the more threatening move.

Right-wing Israeli politicians are already worried about the population growth of Arab Israeli citizens.

Predictably, the Palestinian Authority rejected Qurei's strategy this weekend and maintains that independence is still the goal. But the mere mention of a bi-national Israel might be enough to make Israeli negotiators more anxious to establish a Palestinian state.