Law

I just received this on an email from People for the American Way  on the matter of Sarah Palin and her comments about the Supreme Court :

Sarah Palin may not have been able to think of a single Supreme Court case beyond Roe v. Wade that she disagrees with, but that's not true for John McCain and his panel of right-wing judicial advisors. Here are just a few of the cases on their hit list:

· Rush Prudential HMO, Inc. v. Moran—reversal would invalidate important state laws protecting HMO patients’ rights in more than 40 states
· Grutter v. Bollinger— reversal would forbid affirmative action aimed at promoting educational diversity in higher education
· Nevada v. Hibbs—reversal would prevent state employees from obtaining effective relief for violations of their rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act
· Davis v. Bandemer—reversal would allow even blatant partisan gerrymandering in redistricting
· Lawrence v. Texas—reversal would authorize criminal prosecution of private, consensual sex by adult same-sex couples
· Tennessee v. Lane—reversal would allow states to deny physical access to the courts to the disabled
· Massachusetts v. EPA—reversal would permit the EPA to refuse to regulate the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from new cars

John McCain's plan for the Supreme Court is as simple as it is dangerous. He has promised to nominate “clones of Roberts and Alito”.

The Supreme Court is on the ballot this election. McCain would hand the court over to the Right for the next 40 years.

The freedom loving sheriff of Denver aided and abetted by the city's major, has created a detention pen full of cages just in time for the DNCC. The place is not even a correctional facility --it's is cages inside an abandoned warehouse with no visible water, bathrooms, ventilation or access to phones and lawyers.

Oh, did I mention this detention place full of human cages was supposed to be a secret?

Denying due process to people without US citizenship, residency papers, green cards or a visa is becoming a business racket for private prisons and private security (aka paramilitary) companies.

The more people are thrown into those jails, the more money the concentration camps make.

Welcome to the new American economy.

h/t American Humanity

I would have subtitled this video "America's New Civil War".

From the production company :
The New York Times and the Washington Post have recently reported on the "System of Neglect," namely, the state of immigration detention center conditions. As told by her sister June Everett, watch the story of Sandra Kenley, a 52- year-old grandmother, who after living in the U.S. legally for 33 years, was subjected to these very conditions and died in immigration detention.

So Kos uses his blog, just like Michelle Malkin, to parachute on the AP controversy and call himself a hero. In the post not only does he quote an AP article (something I had done earlier that day for fisking purposes), but proceeds to dump on both Rogers Cadenhead, Bob Cox and Ron Coleman for having the temerity to talk with the AP about guidelines :

"The dumbasses at the Media Bloggers Association, of course, are walking right into that meeting because they crave nothing more than creating the impression that they, you know, represent bloggers (they don't)."

This, mind you, after the fact that Rogers had asked for those guidelines. Here's the back story :

Yesterday was intense day that I think was made worse by an article written by Scott Hansell over at The New York Times. Not only did he describe bloggers as "free wheeling", but Hansell made it look like the boycott started by netroots bloggers that spread through the blogosphere was going to be over once the Associated Press had discussions "with representatives of the Media Bloggers Association" that would produce "guidelines" to impose on bloggers.

We don’t want to cast a pall over the blogosphere by being heavy-handed, so we have to figure out a better and more positive way to do this,” Mr. Kennedy said.

Mr. Kennedy said the company was going to meet with representatives of the Media Bloggers Association, a trade group, and others. He said he hopes that these discussions can all occur this week so that guidelines can be released soon.

Still, Mr. Kennedy said that the organization has not withdrawn its request that Drudge Retort remove the seven items. And he said that he still believes that it is more appropriate for blogs to use short summaries of A.P. articles rather than direct quotations, even short ones.

“Cutting and pasting a lot of content into a blog is not what we want to see,” he said. “It is more consistent with the spirit of the Internet to link to content so people can read the whole thing in context.”

Even if The A.P. sets standards, bloggers could choose to use more content than its standards permit, and then The A.P. would have to decide whether to take legal action against them.

The last paragraph is not only the other (after the free wheeling adjective) offending point of this article. It gets picked up by none other than The Associate Press, which goes on to "report" (and here I am breaking to boycott in order to fisk them)

NEW YORK - The Associated Press, following criticism from bloggers over an AP assertion of copyright, plans to meet this week with a bloggers' group to help form guidelines under which AP news stories could be quoted online.

Jim Kennedy, the AP's director of strategic planning, said Monday that he planned to meet Thursday with Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, as part of an effort to create standards for online use of AP stories by bloggers that would protect AP content without discouraging bloggers from legitimately quoting from it.

The meeting comes after AP sent a legal notice last week to Rogers Cadenhead, the author of a blog called the Drudge Retort, a news community site whose name is a parody of the prominent blog the Drudge Report.

The notice called for the blog to remove several postings that AP believed was an improper use of its stories. Other bloggers subsequently lambasted AP for going after a small blogger whom they thought appeared to be engaging in a legally permissible and widely practiced activity protected under "fair use" provisions of copyright law.

In response, the AP indicated it would seek to create guidelines, though even that idea triggered further protests. Michael Arrington wrote on his TechCrunch blog Monday that AP "doesn't get to make its own rules about how its content is used, if those rules are stricter than the law allows."
FULL ARTICLE AND SOURCE

It is outrageous that the AP, with the help of one of it's members (The New York Times), is spinning this Thursday as some sort of workshop that they will use, with the help of the Media Bloggers Association, to tell bloggers what is Fair Use.

And it is what I was twittering about with Jay Rosen last night. Jay and I reckoned there was what it seemed a "diffusing" element to the way the news were being report from Hansell down. He picked up on it as "the journalists' attempt to calm things down". I described as "there's an interesting diffusing dynamic going on, starting @ NYT" that had been preceded by the following twitts :

blogdiva: @jayrosen_nyu what a lot of your media peeps fail to mention is that no matter what AP says about use of their content there'll be a boycott
about 10 hours later · Reply · View Tweet

blogdiva: @jayrosen_nyu the boycott is not going to end after Ap meets the MBA because the issue here is that they don't get to say what is fair use
less than a minute later · Reply · View Tweet

It wasn't until after I spoke with Robert Cox that it hit me : Yes, indeed, people are reading these as "appeasement" quotes from AP. It does look like the article are meant to diffuse the issue and they're doing so by using Robert Cox's meeting as part of their damage control.

We will deal here with the first part of the discussion which is about Rogers' C&D, the agreement he brokered with the AP and the Thursday meeting. The second part, which is about the reorganization of the Media Bloggers Association and how to become a member will be posted separately.

I cannot lie : I can't understand the whole concept of prostitution.

I can't understand why I woman would want to get paid by 2, 3, 6, 10 guys (or gals) a night to make rent. I can't understand how people can use their bodies as a tool or an instrument in that fashion.

I can't understand either why a guy would want to pay for sex. Yes, I know, I've heard about the whole "it's about having control and power and no string attached" spiel. Yet whereas many people see that as an exploitative act that gives men an unlimited amount of power, I see it more as a sign of weakness and even impotence. A guy that has to pay for it can't get it any other way and paying it for it is just part of the thrill.

Yet just because I don't understand the psychological dynamics of prostitution does it mean that it should be outlawed. On the contrary, just as with most drugs, I believe that we should follow Holland's lead and legalize prostitution.

Banning prostitution is not going to make it go away. On the contrary, the allure of breaking the taboo would be even stronger. If women and men want to turn sex into a transaction then, by all means, make it safe and make it fair.

Prostitution should be taxed and considered labor.

Prostitutes should be certified by the board of health.

Prostitution houses ought to be licensed and provide security services, along with health benefits and other labor benefits, to all their workers.

Ohio had severe weather conditions at the moment. The A judge ordered 15 polling stations in County Coyahuga, the county for Cleaveland, to reopen until 9:00pm.

7:58 p.m.
The Obama campaign has gone before a judge to try and get an order to have the polls remain open in Cuyahoga County until 9 p.m. The campaign claims there was a shortage of Democratic ballots that may have left some voters without the chance to vote. A higher number than expected number of Republican voters showed up at the polls Tuesday asking to switch parties and receive a Democratic ballot. A judge in Sandusky County already approved a similar measure requested by Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner. Brunner says there was a lack of Democratic ballots in that county due to the number of voters switching parties.

Read more at WKYC.COM's site.

On May 25th, 2005, I wrote the following about Lawrence Lessig :

Today we're all having one of those days : the four of us woke up somewhat askew. Whether it is allergies or a cold, we're not feeling well. So I decided to not take the kids to their usual martial arts class. But to minimize the askweness of the day, we followed part of our Monday "script" and procured the "start of the week" stash of candy.

And then, to make things more "different" I bought New York Magazine because this week's cover story caught my eye. Simply titled, The Choirboy, the hook goes : "The American Boychoir School in Princeton was a twisted sanctuary for the sexual abuse of children. Why is one of America's most famous lawyers taking it on? He was one of the victims". Needsless to say, I had to get this magazine. With all the child abuse scandals plaguing the Catholic Church, I was intrigued. So I immediately went on to page 28 while my two little boys were enjoying their Monday afternoon treat and I immediately broke down.

The lawyer and former abused choirboy is none other than Lawrence Lessig; a man who could only be described as force of nature on the internet.

There on page 29 of this week's New York Magazine, is a man that I have long admired, not just because of his books championing freedom of speach on the Internet, not just because he founded Creative Commons, but because Lawrence Lessig was one of the few people to come to our family's rescue and tell us "everything is going to be alright". Back in 1997 my husband became on of the first artists to be threatened with intellectual property lawsuits for derivative work displayed and distributed through the internet and Lessig was one of the few people who was able to offer some advice --because nothing like this had happened to any artists on the net.

It's because of this that nowadays, when working on a project, we always ask WWLLD? or "What would Lawrence Lessig do?" : We're not religious people but we do believe in the legal judgement of Lessig.

As one of the commenters over at Lessig's said, "Having high-profile, successful people step forward with their stories is important. It makes the burden easier to carry for others, and it shows in a practical way that though such a past will always -color- you to some degree, it doesn't need to -define- you."

Yet it's the fact that he took on this legal challenge after losing one of the biggest and most important legal fights in his area of special --copyright and intellectual property-- that is more poignant.

Environmental Law - Protection of Native Resources

Type of Event: Training
Hosted By: Falmouth Institute
Event Dates: 4/21/2008 - 4/23/2008
Event Location: Las Vegas, NV
Cost: $755
Contact: Falmouth Institute
Email: information@falmouthinstitute.com
Contact Phone:800-992-4489
Contact Fax:703-352-2323
Website: http://www.falmouthinstitute.com

Course Description:Even though federal law and policy assures conservation and protection of natural resources, the outcome of conservation on tribal land is uncertain. Cultural and economic interests of tribes often conflict with those of states and federal government. Tribes face management challenges – increased economic development, changing environmental conditions and competing interests, to name just a few. A thorough understanding of the legal issues and rights of all parties is the best defense for protecting natural resources. Natural resources are important everywhere, but they are more critical to tribes. This insightful, three-day class will cover the basics from water and air to land and wildlife. It will examine the federal laws and regulations that govern these areas and provide a review of the latest case law. Find out where states’ rights end and the tribes’ begin. Understand why these different aspects of the environment are important and how they affect everything from everyday life to business development. Learn how to create and maintain conservation projects and discuss how other tribes’ have used the law to help conserve and protect their natural resources. This hands-on class will give you the opportunity to discuss the unique challenges and issues that impact your tribe and explore solutions. Don’t miss this important training program – register today!

Tribal-State Comparative Law

Type of Event: Training
Hosted By: Tribal Judicial Institute
Event Dates: 5/1/2008 - 5/1/2008
Event Location: Minneapolis, MN
Contact: Melissa Johnson
Email: mjohnson@law.und.edu
Contact Phone:701-777-6306
Contact Fax:701-777-0178
Website: http://www.law.und.edu/npilc/judicial

Course Description:Many Tribal Justice Systems can benefit from the examination of how States resolve disputes. Tribal-State forums are important tools to achieve this result. The partners are actively involved in such forums in the Dakotas, Minnesota and New York and will bring these experiences to bear in this one session.

How to Register: Visit the Tribal Judicial Institute website to download a registration form at: http://www.law.und.edu/npilc/judicial/downloads.php

Healing to Wellness Courts and Tribal Court Responses to Substance Abuse

Type of Event: Training
Hosted By: Tribal Judicial Institute
Event Dates: 5/15/2008 - 5/16/2008
Event Location: Anchorage, AK
Contact: Melissa Johnson
Email: mjohnson@law.und.edu
Contact Phone:701-777-6306
Contact Fax:701-777-0178
Website: http://www.law.und.edu/npilc/judicial

Course Description:Partners will assist Tribes to develop and implement Healing to Wellness Courts to respond to a burgeoning drug and alcohol problem including methamphetamine.

How to Register: Visit the Tribal Judicial Institute website to download a registration form at: http://www.law.und.edu/npilc/judicial/downloads.php

Tribal Court Development and Administration

Type of Event: Training
Hosted By: Tribal Judicial Institute
Event Dates: 5/15/2008 - 5/16/2008
Event Location: Anchorage, AK
Contact: Melissa Johnson
Email: mjohnson@law.und.edu
Contact Phone:701-777-6306
Contact Fax:701-777-0178
Website: http://www.law.und.edu/npilc/judicial

Course Description:This session will include record retention, developing a court clerks procedures manual, grant management and related issues.

How to Register: Visit the Tribal Judicial Institute website to download a registration form at: http://www.law.und.edu/npilc/judicial/downloads.php

Protecting the Sovereignty of Native Nations

Type of Event: Training
Hosted By: J. Dalton Institute
Event Dates: 6/23/2008 - 6/24/2008
Event Location: Las Vegas, NV
Contact: J. Dalton Institute
Email: jdalton98@aol.com
Contact Phone:1-888-886-0664
Contact Fax:920-338-8683
Website: http://www.jdaltoninstitute.com

Course Description:Legal Analysis by University Law School Professor, Review of San Manuel v. NLRB, Pequot Analysis (Unions as Threats to Sovereignty, Land and Sovereignty Issues, Labor Unions in Indian Country, Legal Strategy and Case Law, Others

How to Register: http://www.jdaltoninstitute.com/registration.html

Jack Woodward: Tsilhqot' in First Nation Aboriginal Land Title Litigation

Jack Woodward
Woodward & Company
Wednesday, March 5, 2008, 3:30 - 5:30 PM
Rountree Hall 204
1145 N. Mountain Ave.
University of Arizona, Tucson

Jack is a senior member of the British Columbia Bar. He has been practicing law since 1979. He is one of BC's pre-eminent legal practitioners working primarily in the realm of aboriginal, human rights and environmental law. He is the author of Native Law (Carswells, 1989), one of Canada's leading texts on the subject of aboriginal law. The University of Victoria Faculty of Law's first credit course in native law was developed by Jack, and he was an Instructor and Adjunct Professor of Law teaching aboriginal law at U. Vic's Faculty of Law for sixteen years. He has been counsel at all levels of court for over a hundred Indian bands and organizations in the course of his legal career in a wide variety of cases.

This is one of the most powerful speeches I have ever seen given (I was able to catch the whole speech in bits and pieces as people were reporting about it through YouTube) and it is even more powerful once read.

Why? Rudd enacts with this as law an acknowledgment that white privilege is founded on government policies that sought to make Aborigine Australians extinct.

Here's the quote :

The uncomfortable truth for us all is that the parliaments of the nation, individually and collectively, enacted statutes and delegated authority under those statutes that made the forced removal of children on racial grounds fully lawful.

There is a further reason for an apology as well: it is that reconciliation is in fact an expression of a core value of our nation - and that value is a fair go for all.

There is a deep and abiding belief in the Australian community that, for the stolen generations, there was no fair go at all.

There is a pretty basic Aussie belief that says that it is time to put right this most outrageous of wrongs.

It is for these reasons, quite apart from concerns of fundamental human decency, that the governments and parliaments of this nation must make this apology - because, put simply, the laws that our parliaments enacted made the stolen generations possible.

We, the parliaments of the nation, are ultimately responsible, not those who gave effect to our laws. And the problem lay with the laws themselves.

As has been said of settler societies elsewhere, we are the bearers of many blessings from our ancestors; therefore we must also be the bearer of their burdens as well.

Therefore, for our nation, the course of action is clear: that is, to deal now with what has become one of the darkest chapters in Australia's history.

In doing so, we are doing more than contending with the facts, the evidence and the often rancorous public debate.

In doing so, we are also wrestling with our own soul.

Full text after the jump

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Texas law making it illegal to sell or promote obscene devices, punishable by as many as two years in jail, violated the right to privacy guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.

Companies that own Dreamer's and Le Rouge Boutique, which sell the devices in its Austin stores, and the retail distributor Adam & Eve sued in federal court in Austin in 2004 over the constitutionality of the law. They appealed after a federal judge dismissed the suit and said the Constitution did not protect their right to publicly promote such devices.

In its decision Tuesday, the appeals court cited Lawrence and Garner v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 opinion that struck down bans on consensual sex between same-sex couples.

I suggest to all Texans who've been bereft of some battery powered joy to get this.

Oklahoma is already starting to suffer the consequences of it's tough new anti-migrant workers law :

People are just picking up and leaving :

PARK HILL, Okla. — Autumn had arrived in eastern Oklahoma, and workers at the sprawling Greenleaf Nursery were prepping for deadly frosts. They needed to ship plants, erect greenhouses and bunch trees together to protect them against the cold.

But in late October, about 40 employees disappeared from the 600-acre nursery about an hour's drive from Tulsa. "Some went to Texas, some went to Arkansas," nursery President Randy Davis says. "They just left."

Why did the workers, all immigrants, flee? "Those states don't have 1804," Davis says.

Because most legal residents are children of undocumented parents:

Supporters of 1804 say the state will benefit from illegal immigrants leaving. "That's money in our pocket," says Carol Helm of Immigration Reform for Oklahoma Now.

Not all of those leaving Oklahoma are in the USA illegally. "I've lost two housekeepers out of a staff of 12," says Joe Geis, general manager of the Sleep Inn & Suites in Edmond. "They were here legally, (but) they have family" members who were not.

Immigrant activist Blanca Thames says she has helped more than 1,000 families prepare power-of-attorney papers to protect children in case parents are deported. Many illegal immigrants have U.S.-born children who are citizens.

Senator Dodd was successful in postponing until January a debate over whether telecommunications companies such as AT&T should be given retroactive immunity for aiding and abetting the Bush administration in their warrantless wiretapping efforts.

This from Wired.com :

The presidential candidate threatened to filibuster and hold the Senate floor if the Senate shot down his amendment to strip immunity from the bill. That threat moved Reid to postpone a vote on the bill, so that the Senate could take up war funding bills, a massive domestic spending bill and changes to the Alternative Minimum Tax before the winter break.

[...]

Dodd spent nearly 10 hours on the Senate floor Monday, assaulting the administration's secret warrantless wiretapping program and channeling Senator Frank Church, whose investigation in the 1970s of the nation's intelligence services clandestine led to Congressional limits on government spying.

The fight is obviously not over, but at least with this stay of constitutional execution, civil liberties activists (and ... ahem ... netizens) will be able to spread the word even louder to their neighbors about how their phone and cable companies are spying on them.

See more at The Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Dear Sandra,

I don't mean to rub it in, but I bet you're wishing you had paid attention to that open letter I wrote you a few years ago. This week, a report on channel KPNX leaked that your Alzheimer's-stricken husband John is living, happily, with a new girlfriend in an old age home. Their video exposé even contains hard-core shots of your husband John holding hands with Kay, the local hooch of the Huger Mercy Living Center. Far from being jealous or upset, you, according to your own son, are a bit of a voyeur who likes to watch: "For Mom to visit when he's happy ... visiting with his girlfriend, sitting on the porch swing holding hands... No stress on mom. No guilt laid on mom."

Well I'm glad you enjoy watching your husband and his lady friend "exchange oxygen masks" and play footsie under the Bingo table. And I'm glad that you don't feel guilty about your John. But I still haven't forgiven you for what you did to me and, more importantly, what you did to America. And that is something to feel guilty about.

Liberals were so busy pointing their fingers at Alito and Roberts for shifting the court to the right they forget to look at the bigger question: How did Alito and Roberts get there? By replacing Rehnquist and O'Connor, respectively, on the bench. We can hardly blame Rehnquist, or as Nixon liked to call him, " Renchburg" the "Jewish clown". I mean Rehnquist could barely walk, couldn't talk, and had a gaping hole in his throat, which he covered ingeniously with his signature "tracheo-scarf." And yet this judge chugged away on decision after decision until the day he died at the age of 81.

Bill Hing, Jennifer Chacón and Kevin Johnson do a bang up job at keeping us up-to-date with the latest on immigration law here in the United States. Definitely a must read.

Just when I think the Bush administration couldn't get into a deeper cesspool of corruption, that then comes news like the one about Michael Chertoff being the possible replacement for Alberto Gonzales and ... well ... I have to slap myself out the shock.

Let me refresh your memory :

This the same Michael Chertoff that allegedly traced the 9/11 to Al-Qaeda and who helped market and brand "the war on terror".

Michael Chertoff is the guy that helped write the "torture memorandum" while he was at the criminal division of the Justice Department.

This is the same guy that was supposed to manage and supervise FEMA, especially before, during and after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

At least we can say one thing about Bush : He's loyal.

I was asked if I wanted to help The Nation identify the blogosphere's influentials that could help them in one of their current campaigs, the first thought that popped into my head was, "here we go again, another one of those blogger phone calls". Yet, when I heard the name "TimeWarner" as one of the main antagonists, I knew I had to take on this project.

Earlier this year, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) rejected a postal rate increase plan offered by the U.S. Postal Service. Instead of implementing a plan that would spread equitably the rate hikes across all bulk mail clients, they opted to implement a modified version submitted by and partial to media giant Time-Warner Inc.

The new postal increase drafted by TimeWarner-AOL and approved by the PRC favors large bulk mail users like the magazine publishing divisions of TimeWarner-AOL by increasing the rate of small independent publishers by as much as 20%. Just to put things into perspective, for a publication like The Nation, this translates into paying $500,000 extra in postage yearly and in perpetuity (or until the next postal increase comes along).

As Teresa Stark put it in Disseminate Information, Protect Democracy, "While it is understandable that Time Warner would relish the idea of making it more difficult for new competitors, there is no reason to think that it is in the interest of the American people or the market economy.

Ironically, about two years ago a coalition of organizations and netactivists created DearAOL.com after the media giant tried to impose an email “stamp” system for bulk emailers like MoveOn.org or bloggers with weekly newsletters produced by blogs like YearlyKos, BradBlog or Afronetizen. Yes, they actually tried to play post office with AOL's email service.

And it was thinking about this bit of irony that it hit me : TimeWarner has been one of the biggest enemies of the free internet (aka, net neutrality) not just so they can be free to charge whatever they want for all aspects of publishing, privacy, creativity and freedom on the internet. It's part of a larger business vision in which all publishing, recording and broadcasting in the United States is control by a handful of large (and therefore manageable) media conglomerates.

George W. Bush commutes Scooter Libby's 30-month jail sentence for lying under oath and obstruction of justice in the Plame Case. This proves that he not only runs the White House like a mafia but, if he could, he would whack all of Congress and run a totalitarian government.

Raw Story reports:

Libby did not receive a pardon, but he did have his 30 month jail sentence commuted by President Bush. He remains guilty of the felonies of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements in the federal investigation of the outing of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. He will also pay a $250,000 fine.

I challenge any republican to justify this move and try to rationalize it as anything other than being a good Xian. This is the biggest F**k you Bush could have given to Congress. As John Conyers' said, "this decision is inconsistent with the rule of law". With this commuting Bush is sending a strong message that he approves of lying under oath and breaking the law for political gain.

Nancy Pelosi also has some harsh words for Bush:

The President’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence does not serve justice, condones criminal conduct, and is a betrayal of trust of the American people.

UPDATE 23 MAY 2007:
Click here to listen to the podcast

Last saturday I facilitated a session at the Personal Democracy Unconference, which took place at Pace University's downtown NYC campus.

To those who don't know what means unconference, the concept is an interesting take on the old formula. People come in with a topic or set of topics they'd like to talk about. All the topics are placed written on a piece of paper and placed on the wall, next to an empty schedule grid. Once the organizers give it a go, facilitators place on their preferred time slot and/or negotiate with other facilitators the timing of their session.

The session I facilitated was titled, Reframing Net Neutrality as a Civil Rights Issues. I honestly wasn't expecting more than a few people but was amazed when about a dozen strong came to the corner where I was set up. Nancy Scola, Aldon Hines, Cheryl Contee, Ruby Sinreich, Ed Cone, Heather Holdridge and so many other amazing people came to discuss this important issue that has been amazingly bogged down by too much geek speak.

What's at the core of Net Neutrality? There's people who can put this better than me, but at the heart of the debate is the issue that internet providers should have the right to distinguish all sorts of bandwidth usage in order to better manage their resources and provide better service. The concern is that companies like YouTube may literally clog the internets and it's tubes.

UPDATE 2:
I have removed Ms. Mangum's image but left the original post.

What I wanted to have with this post was the possibility of her image being associated with a good discussion about this case. I think it is important that when people go searching for her photograph --given it has been released and it's under the public domain-- that her photograph is associated with a good discussion about this case.

This unfortunately is not the post.

UPDATE :
I have been asked to take down the photograph of Ms. Mangum. Believe me, I am not taking lightly at all that The Smoking Gun rushed to reveal her. On the same breath, believe you me when I say I am not taking lightly at all the gross miscarriage of justice involved in this case.

I want to go on record as saying that I do believe Ms. Mangum when she says she was raped. Yet, as the mother of two boys, one of whom could easily pass as a "white boy", I can't even fathom having to hold my son's hand during a trial in which he was wrongly accused of rape.

There are serious issues that have to be discussed about this case : Mike Nifong was a Democratic candidate for District Attorney who needed to be in the graces of the "black vote" to win the primaries and reelection.

It's indecent that many people in the "left" --people who traditionally vote Democrat-- found it politically expedient to decry Reade Seligmann, David Evans, and Collin Finnerty as guilty of rape because, you know, they were three easy "white guy" targets. This particularly goes out to the feminists who rushed to called them rapists.

Now let me reiterate : I believe Ms. Mangum was raped. I do believe the three "privileged white guys" didn't do it. I do believe there is a truth that nobody who was in that house that day wants to reveal.

What terrifies me is that the evidence that could have potentially vindicated Ms. Mangum was probably tainted, mishandled or even not gathered at all because of the political ambition of a corrupt Democrat who saw her as a political expedient pawn for black votes.

To call this case a gross mishandling of justice is to put it mildly.

And yes, I have even more to say about this, but that goes on a separate post.

Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum. She is the woman who accused Reade Seligmann, David Evans, and Collin Finnerty of raping her at a team party where she had worked as an exotic dancer.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced yesterday his office was dropping all charges against the three Duke students and that they were closing the criminal case because there was no credible evidence against, and I quote, "the innocent" trio.

I asked not long ago why guys suspected of dowloading child pornography end up in jail yet Joe Francis, who is actually making the porn (allegedly by not knowing some of the girls were 15 years old) or by using it as a marketing metaphor (young nubile girls wild with sex), gets scot free.

Well, he may not have gotten nailed for child pornography and sexual assault but he got nailed by tax evasion --and faces 10 years in prison if found guilty :

The indictment of 34-year-old Joe Francis Wednesday follows his arrest by federal marshals Tuesday on a contempt-of-court citation stemming from a civil case in Florida, where he is being held without bail, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Wednesday's charges alleged that Francis deducted more than $20 million in false business expenses on corporate income tax returns filed in 2002 and 2003 by two of his companies, Mantra Films Inc. of Santa Monica and Sands Media Inc. of Nevada. The charges were revealed in press releases issued by the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service.

According to the L.A. Times, the alleged improper deductions included $3.78 million that was counted as a business cost when it was actually spent to build a residence in Punta Mita, Mexico. In addition, $10.4 million in "false consulting services" was deducted, as was a $500,000 false insurance expense, according to the indictment cited by The Times.

Live on CNN : All charges have been dropped due to the inconsistencies in the evidence, especially the accounts by the alleged victim herself.

The North Carolina attorney general says the investigation was so faulty from the beginning, after his office's 12 week-long investigation, he is asking for all charges to the dropped and the names of the alleged attackers cleared.

DA Mike Nifong is under ethics investigation due to his mishandling of the case. The attorney general considers Nifong to have been a rogue DA, which is why he is under ethics investigation. He also is seeking for the state Supreme Court to enact proceeding for the swift removal of DAs in future similar situations.

Now the only recourse the accuser has is to take her alleged attackers to civil court --but that would lift off the privacy shield he has had under sexual assault laws.

I have more to say about this, but have to run out to pick up the kids from school. More later.

I am a member of The Open House Project, a collaborative and bipartisan effort organized by The Sunlight Foundation to bring practices of transparency and openness to Congress through the use of digital and internet technologies.

Today we are able to declare a huge win for bloggers and citizen journalists alike. This is what Beltway Blogroll reports :

C-SPAN To Offer Free Access To Hearings
Andrew Noyes, one of my senior writers, has been covering this breaking story for Technology Daily the past couple of weeks. It started when House Republicans criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. -- and then retracted that criticism -- for posting footage from House floor debates on her new blog, The Gavel.

The story sparked a movement to make more congressional video freely available, and C-SPAN quickly obliged.

Here's what two C-SPAN executives said about the change in policy:

-- Executive Committee Chairman William Bresnan, the CEO of Bresnan Communications: "The C-SPAN board sees this as helping us carry out C-SPAN's public service mission. The cable industry created this network to allow citizens greater access to their government, and this enhancement appropriately reflects the rapid changes in the online information world."

-- President and co-chief operating officer Rob Kennedy: "Giving voice to the average citizen has been a centerpiece of C-SPAN's journalism since our network's founding in 1979. As technology advances, we want to continue to be a leader in providing citizens with the tools to be active participants in the democratic process.

This is huge.

Government cameras film all Congressional proceedings. The footage though, is broadcast mostly through C-SPAN. It is not clear to me if C-SPAN is a 501c(3) --even though their tag line is "created by the cable companies, offered as a public service" nowhere in their site does it say they are a not-for-profit.

If they are indeed a non-profit, they have been quite bullish about the "copyright" they hold on the public domain footage they broadcast. Basically they've made it impossible to use congressional video footage by having a few seconds of original content a the beginning of all congressional videos, slapping their logo on it and claiming, then it's their original content.

As much as I would like to take at face value the comments made by the higher ups at C-SPAN, this admission of fair use shows they are scared of losing what made them precious : their role of gatekeepers.

Well ... ok ... Libby was found not-guilty on account of making false statements to the FBI; but he was convicted on 4 others and stands to be in jail for up to 30 years :

Jury convicts Libby on four charges - Politics - MSNBC.com:

Libby faced two counts of perjury, two counts of lying to the FBI and one count of obstruction of justice. Prosecutors said he discussed Plame's name with reporters and, fearing prosecution, made up a story to make those discussions seem innocuous.

Libby's defense team said he learned about Plame from Cheney, forgot about it, then learned it again a month later from newsman Tim Russert of NBC’s “Meet the Press”. Anything he told reporters about Plame, Libby said, was just chatter and rumors, not official government information.

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said that was a lie. But Libby's defense team had argued that it would be unfair to convict Libby in a case where so many witnesses changed their stories or had memory problems.

“We think we made an appropriate decision, and we have no regrets,” Fitzgerald told reporters after the verdict was announced.

Dick Cheney though, is still at-large; alebit with a blood clot in his leg waiting to explode.

This is what I got late last night :

From: margaret_langston@timeinc.com
Date: 28 February 2007 06:57:58 PM EST
To: Liza Sabater ...

Subject: Re: DMCA Copyright Notice

Dear Website Proprietor:
I am an attorney for Time Inc., the corporate publisher of People Magazine. This will put you on notice that Time Inc. has concluded an agreement with a photo agency for exclusive rights to publish photographs of Patrick Dempsey and his family (including his newborn twins) in People Magazine and on People.com. These are the only photographs of Mr. Dempsey and his twins now in existence.

In the past your website has posted photographs which have been licensed exclusively to Time Inc. for publication in People Magazine and on People.com, in violation of Time Inc.’s exclusive rights.
This letter is an official notification under the provisions of Section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that the posting of any photographs of Patrick Dempsey and/or any other members of his family with his newborn twins, would infringe Time Inc.’s rights in North America, Australia and New Zealand.

I have a good faith belief that use of such photographs in the manner set forth herein would not be authorized by of Time Inc., its licensing representatives, or the law. The information provided herein is accurate to the best of my knowledge. I hereby swear under penalty of perjury that I am authorized to act on behalf of Time Inc. for matters pertaining to notification of infringement of its exclusive rights in its copyrighted material.

Very truly yours

Nicholas J. Jollymore
Deputy General Counsel
Time Inc.
nicholas_jollymore@timeinc.com

Here is my response:

I have been emailing with people back and forth about the Hussein execution. One of those people, Dan Jacoby, is one of our contributors at The Daily Gotham. He pointed us an article he wrote two and a half years ago about Where, Not When and may I add, why wasn't Hussein tried by the World Court.

There's a lot of buzz about when the Bush administration is going to turn Saddam Hussein over to some American-appointed Iraqi interim governing body. The question people should be asking, however, is not when we're going to turn him over, but where, and to whom.
Slobodan Milosevic was the tyrannical leader of a country who attacked his neighbors, slaughtered thousands of people, and was eventually captured. He was quite properly turned over to the World Court in The Hague to stand trail for crimes against humanity. Saddam Hussein deserves the same fate. But we're not going to send him to Holland, we're keeping him in Iraq.

Why?

[...]

Chances are neither of these is the real reason for not turning Hussein over to the proper authority. Chances are that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and others are afraid of what will come out in a real, public trial.

As if on cue, CNN is reporting Bush's comments on the execution : He considers Hussein's demise as the end of a fair trial and the beginning of Iraq's new democracy.

I am writing this post if only because Roxanne Cooper pinged me this morning about the woman who gives a face to the expression media whore.

Rox was brainstorming with Amanda Marcotte and they came up with the idea of having a Dear Judith national campaign, urging her to donate ALL NET PROCEEDS from the sale of OJ Simpson's book to organizations that help women escape from living in abusive relationships.

Jill at Feministe is on the case as well.

Why it's taken me this long to write about the recycled OJ Simpson scandal? Well, words failed me. As Michael over at The Daily Gotham : Michael wrote, it seemed so much like a hoax that when I found out it was true, well, I was feklempt.

He finds the words that escaped me: