Moderate Republicans

Tell Bush the gig is up.

NHI

A Broward County Judge recently used "NHI" in the Courtroon to refer to a case involving a black victim, black defendant and black witnesses. NHI means "No Humans Involved" and dates back to the 1970s and is used to describe why some crimes against prostitutes, gays or blacks may not be pursued as vigorously as those with white victims. It is a term used commonly by police officers and prosecutors, and now judges.

Institutional Bias

Because of politically conservative appointments from both Republicans and Democrats, the Court's have an institutional bias against civil plaintiffs and criminal defendants. Case in point: Oklahoma Federal Judge just threw out a $15 MM jury award against Ford for a rollover accident and ordered a new trial. The reason for new trial? Apparently the Plaintiff's attorney made improper remarks during closing, including (1) personal attacks on Ford witnesses and attorneys, and (2) "blatant suggestions" that Ford Explorers are responsible for 10,000 deaths per year, and (3) comparing the number of deaths in the Iraq War. I'm not convinced this is beyond the pale for argument, such that you'd take the case from the jury. But, even granting that it is, my point is: can you imagine a judge taking a high stakes criminal case away from a jury for similar remarks by the prosecution in closing? Seems unlikely.

HI-DEF Wars

Blu-Ray is infront and pulling away from HD-DVD. So, you might want to hold off on that new HD-DVD drive that you had your eyes on. These sales numbers have apparently made Microsoft pull back a little with it its support of HD-DVD.

Viacom v. YouTube, Google

Viacom sued YouTube and its parent company Google for copyright infringement yesterday, claiming over $1BN in damages. (Complaint) Google claims safe harber provisions under the DMCA. Should be an interesting case if it goes the distance. Some commentators think this will settle quickly. I'm guessing that both sides are looking to set precedent here.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Alabama's 1998 can on the sale of sex toys. The Court held that since their is no fundamental right to buy sex toys, then the law must only withstand rational basis scrutiny instead of strict scrutiny. The rational basis scrutiny is whether the law is rationally related to a legitimate government objective. The 11th Circuit held that ban of sex toys is rationally related to upholding public morality.

This is obvious crap. First, using sex toys is not immoral. Second, the ban does not prevent the use of sex toys in the state, so if people are still allowed to use them in the state, the sale of them is not rationally related to the any legitimate government objective. This will get overturned by the Supreme Court.

In justifying the decision, the Alabama Solicitor General dubiously explained, "In rejecting that view, which necessarily would have invalidated traditional prohibitions on, for instance, incest, polygamy, and prostitution, the 11th Circuit recognized and reiterated that 'the law is constantly based on notions of morality.''' This is also obvious crap, buying sex toys is qualitatively different than incest, polygamy and prostitution all which have other reasons for their ban other than an appeal simple morality. Incest results in obvious public health problems. Polygamy is not as much a ban, as much as it is decision of what types of private relationships to publicly sanction. And, prostitution, which should be legal, is banned because of its objectifaction and exploitation of women. The sale of sex toys has no other justification other than some minority Christian fundamentalist view of morality, which by itself, should not be a legitimate government objective since it is merely promoting religion.

Everson

Excellent lengthy article dicussing the legal and factual fallacies of the religious right's attempts to discredit the 60-year old Supreme Court opinion on separation of church and state.

SJC Dividing Line: Bears v. Colts

Chicago Tribune article.

Libby Opening Arguments

Article.

Surge/Escalation of Iraq War

Couple choice quotes from an article about the proposed escalation:

Asked if Bush can expect full Republican support for his plan, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, replied bluntly, "No."

*****

Republicans also said they want to examine any new plan. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who last fall called for a new war strategy while chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, "The administration will state its case, and then I'll state mine."

*****

Politically and legislatively, support from his fellow Republicans remains vital for Bush's Iraq policy. But it is rapidly weakening under Iraq's relentless disintegration despite every change in administration tactics, and the November midterm election that knocked Republicans from power on Capitol Hill.

*****

The administration is expected to make a large new request for more money soon to finance the war in separate legislation, called a supplemental appropriation. Estimates are that the new request could be about $100 billion -- on top of the estimated $450 billion already spent for the war in Iraq.

*****

Bush is getting strong support, however from several leading Republicans, including Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona. Joining them is independent former Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. They sharply warned their colleagues that failing to back Bush's effort would ensure failure in Iraq and all its consequences.

Torture

Do as we say not as we do. U.S. anti-torture laws seem to be inconsistent with the White House definition, which as you might recall is that it is torture only if there is organ failure. We are still indicting people for electroshocking genitals under U.S. law but say that it is okay under the Geneva Convention.

EV

I'm starting to be less enthralled with biodiesel and more captivated by the prospects of electric vehicles. The Telsa Roadster got me started on this kick. But, now Pheonix motors seems to be on the verge of offering a more realistic option in the form of a truck or suv.

The obvious advantages of EVs are that they are more efficient that combustion engine vehicles. The Telsa Roadster gets the equivalent of 130 mpg, while going 0-60 in 4 seconds. Their only real question marks are range and price. The Tesla roadster is $100K, but it is a performance sports car. The Pheonix vehicles are more like $40-50K. The range for each is about 250 miles (compared with about a 60 mile range for GM's EV-1, the car from the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?"). 250 miles is sufficient ranges for a primary commuter car, but not sufficient for long drives. Fortunately, it is anticipated that adavances in battery technology in the next 5 years will make it possilble for a EV range of about 600 miles or about as far as you can drive in a day, at which point you can stop and let the car charge overnight (actually it only takes about 3 hours). And, prices are expected to come down. Telsa expects to market a EV for about $30K by 2009. The future is here and it is electric.

While much of the electricity we use is from dirty coal, there are lots of clean options from solar, wind, nuclear and clean burning coal operations to make these EVs the best viable option going forward to both reduce our dependency on foreign oil and to stop pumping exorbinant amouts of carbon into our atmosphere. Especially since we do not have to build an entire hydrogen distribution infrastructure like we would with fuel cell cars.

Kites Pulling a Cargo Ship

Ingenuity.

Vista: Obsolete before it's out the door?

Great article about whether Miscrosoft's new Windows Vista operating system will be the last of its kind. Sampling:

One of the world's most powerful monopolies puts 10,000 people to work for five years to create one new product. And nobody is really sure if anyone wants it. How's that for a gamble?

That's what we have with Windows Vista, the new computer-operating system from Microsoft that debuted last week for businesses and, next month, for consumers. There has been so much buildup for this moment that you would expect Vista to cure cancer.

It's been so long in coming that I'll just be happy if it does the job and doesn't present me with a daily dose of the Blue Screen of Death. Already experts are predicting Vista may be the last of its kind. Obsolete before it's out the door? Geez, we haven't even had a chance to open our wallets yet.

"Suddenly, the market changed and competitors started delivering technology at the speed of the Internet," said James McQuivey, professor of market research at Boston University. "In some cases, they do it for free, and that's painful for Microsoft."

Polling

For you junkies. More than enough to chew on. That GOP pollster predicts the house will be 239 Democrats 196 Republicans. The Senate will likely be much closer, at most 51-49 Dems. But, a split house or GOP control are also very likely. Even with just the house, that's a brutal mid-term for the GOP. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Voice of the Right

Limbaugh attacks Michael J. Fox's symptoms, mimicking Fox, who could be seen swaying and shifting markedly in some recent political ads, and griped that Fox was either acting or "off his meds." The tragic irony is that Rush, talking completely off the cuff had it completely wrong. Fox's swaying was because he's been on the meds for 15 years. Maybe some day people will stop learning how to think from such an idiot as Rush.

Air America files for Bankruptcy

Yeah, nobody saw this coming. Just glad that this ill-fated, ill-advised venture will finally go away. Liberal Talk Radio is an oxymoron. There is no liberal counterpunch to Russ Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Neil Bortz. Talking out of their ass with spin and echo-chamber GOP talking points is their format. I hate that crap, whether its Republican or Democrat. Just give me "liberal" NPR and by "liberal" here I just mean well-produced, well-research informative news and commentary, in which the stories and facts conveyed are allegedly selected with a liberal slant. To which, ironically, there is no conservative counterpunch. Fox News is an entirely different bird.