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Uncontrolled outbursts and intemperate remarks by an angry untenured law professor.
Saturday, January 31, 2004
How to Steal an Election
How can anyone believe that multi-billion dollar capitalist institutions like the New York Times or the Washington Post do anything other than legitimate capitalism. Of course, they are great at focusing on stories that divert attention from class struggle. The New York Times reports:
How can anyone believe that multi-billion dollar capitalist institutions like the New York Times or the Washington Post do anything other than legitimate capitalism. Of course, they are great at focusing on stories that divert attention from class struggle. The New York Times reports:
- Concerned citizens have been warning that new electronic voting technology being rolled out nationwide can be used to steal elections. Now there is proof. When the State of Maryland hired a computer security firm to test its new machines, these paid hackers had little trouble casting multiple votes and taking over the machines' vote-recording mechanisms. The Maryland study shows convincingly that more security is needed for electronic voting, starting with voter-verified paper trails.
Sheep's Clothing
Eugene Volokh cunningly posts criticisms of right-wing nutcases like Irving Kristol on the issues that don't threaten the fundamental interests of the ruling class. Do not be deceived. The so-called "reasonable right" is actually the "dangerous right." So-called "libertarians" exist because it is in the interests of the ruling class to detach social issues like gay rights from the only issue that really counts, class struggle.
Eugene Volokh cunningly posts criticisms of right-wing nutcases like Irving Kristol on the issues that don't threaten the fundamental interests of the ruling class. Do not be deceived. The so-called "reasonable right" is actually the "dangerous right." So-called "libertarians" exist because it is in the interests of the ruling class to detach social issues like gay rights from the only issue that really counts, class struggle.
More Artificial Negativity
Nothing burns me more than the apparently endless capacity of the academic left for distraction. A prime example is the trivial controversy over creation science and evolution in the public schools. Every drop of ink (or keystroke) wasted on this issue functions to distract attention from the three issues that really count. What are those three issues? Class, class, and class.
Nothing burns me more than the apparently endless capacity of the academic left for distraction. A prime example is the trivial controversy over creation science and evolution in the public schools. Every drop of ink (or keystroke) wasted on this issue functions to distract attention from the three issues that really count. What are those three issues? Class, class, and class.
Class Cohesion
Isn't the Cheney/Scalia duck hunting trip just more of the same? These interconnectons among members of the ruling class are nothing new. Calling for Scalia's recusal is worse than a band aid. Such palliative measures serve only to legitimate a system that is fundamentally corrupt beyond redemption. (Running Dog Howard Bashman has more links.)
Isn't the Cheney/Scalia duck hunting trip just more of the same? These interconnectons among members of the ruling class are nothing new. Calling for Scalia's recusal is worse than a band aid. Such palliative measures serve only to legitimate a system that is fundamentally corrupt beyond redemption. (Running Dog Howard Bashman has more links.)
Friday, January 30, 2004
Corporate Tools and Capitalist Bloodsuckers
The so-called democratic primary season of 2004 was already over before it began. Consider this story:
The so-called democratic primary season of 2004 was already over before it began. Consider this story:
- Howard Dean, the erstwhile "Internet candidate," urgently needs to explain to his core Nethead constituency why Joe "Nethead" Trippi is out and Roy "Bellhead" Neel is in. Neel was president of the US Telecom Association (USTA) in the late 1990s when it was the voice of the Big Baby Bells calling for an end to FCC enforcement of the 1996 Telecom Act's competitive provisions. In a USTA op-ed in 2000 (no longer on the USTA Website, but cached here) Neel said,
America’s local phone companies are poised to compete head-on for consumers if only the FCC reduced or eliminated outdated regulations.
The outdated regulations he spoke of in 2000 were the pro-competitive provisions of the 1996 Act. He believes that the FCC is, "requiring [the telcos] to give away their networks, facilities and equipment." What he meant was that he wants TELRIC eliminated. (TELRIC is an FCC pricing formula for unbundled network elements that is already so slanted that CLECs find it almost impossible to compete.)
The Superstar of Rent-a-Constitution
Randy Barnett, the crypto-anarchist, pseudo-libertarian, is on a book tour! Isn't that precious? And Glenn Reynolds is calling him the "Constitutional Law Equivalent of a Rock Star!" The commodification of the legal academy is reaching new heights!
Randy Barnett, the crypto-anarchist, pseudo-libertarian, is on a book tour! Isn't that precious? And Glenn Reynolds is calling him the "Constitutional Law Equivalent of a Rock Star!" The commodification of the legal academy is reaching new heights!
Spitzer, Corporate Hack in Reformist Disguise
Ultra-right wing New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is on the big-money dole. Did we really need Business Week to tell us this:
Ultra-right wing New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is on the big-money dole. Did we really need Business Week to tell us this:
- New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's crusade to clean up Wall Street has helped raise his profile in advance of a possible run for governor. According to recent New York state election filings, his campaign organization, Spitzer 2006, has almost $3.6 million in cash. That's more than double what his likely rival, current Governor George Pataki, has on hand. The money is coming from a veritable who's who of the real-estate, hedge-fund, and legal communities. But an examination by BusinessWeek found that a number of donations are from law firms representing clients caught up in Spitzer's probe of the mutual-fund industry.
Work Ethic?
New age neanderthal Judge Alex Kozinski has been whining about the possibility the Ninth Circuit's shameful memo dispos may become citable under a proposed amendment to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure! As far as I can tell, Kozinski's argument boils down to this: if memo dispos are citable, Ninth Circuit judges will actually have to read the stuff the staff clerks prepare in San Francisco. Horrors!
New age neanderthal Judge Alex Kozinski has been whining about the possibility the Ninth Circuit's shameful memo dispos may become citable under a proposed amendment to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure! As far as I can tell, Kozinski's argument boils down to this: if memo dispos are citable, Ninth Circuit judges will actually have to read the stuff the staff clerks prepare in San Francisco. Horrors!
Where is the real left?
What passes for the left in the intellectual blogosphere makes me sick! Just take a look at what's posted on Crooked Timber. Not a shred of serious discussion of class. Lot's of "let's be reasonable" catering to imperialism and warmongering. Even so-called Marxists like Leiter are obsessed with academic status. I don't know where the real left is, but I can't find it the blogosphere.
What passes for the left in the intellectual blogosphere makes me sick! Just take a look at what's posted on Crooked Timber. Not a shred of serious discussion of class. Lot's of "let's be reasonable" catering to imperialism and warmongering. Even so-called Marxists like Leiter are obsessed with academic status. I don't know where the real left is, but I can't find it the blogosphere.
Nuts at San Diego
Is it just me? Or am I right that the Univeristy of San Diego has hired a bunch of right wing nuts. Don't take my word for it, just read this.
Is it just me? Or am I right that the Univeristy of San Diego has hired a bunch of right wing nuts. Don't take my word for it, just read this.
Originalism? You've got to be joking.
I've seen several posts in the blogosphere lately about originalism. Huh? You've got to be joking. Does anyone really think this crap still sells. It went out with Ed Meese. Originalism is just a rhetorical cover for the radical right's stealth campaign to roll the constituton back to 1789. Property qualifications for voting. Slavery. No serious intellectual can take this stuff seriously!
I've seen several posts in the blogosphere lately about originalism. Huh? You've got to be joking. Does anyone really think this crap still sells. It went out with Ed Meese. Originalism is just a rhetorical cover for the radical right's stealth campaign to roll the constituton back to 1789. Property qualifications for voting. Slavery. No serious intellectual can take this stuff seriously!
About Me
I'm an untenured law professor at someplace that likes to think of itself as a "Top Ten" law school. At work, I can't afford to say what I think. So I will say it here!
I'm an untenured law professor at someplace that likes to think of itself as a "Top Ten" law school. At work, I can't afford to say what I think. So I will say it here!
