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Politics and Litigationi.e., the darker side of Philip Greenspun |
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Well worth a trip to the library (or
amazon.com
) is John L. Jackley's Hill
Rat (1992; Regnery Gateway). Jackley recounts his career as a
press secretary for various Democratic congressmen during the 1980's.
Congressmen are whores for honoraria and junkets from the industries
they regulate, CSPAN time, and enough campaign contributions to ensure
that they remain among the 96% re-elected. Their staffers, the "Hill
rats", are whores for receptions where the lobbyists buy shrimp. Every
few pages, you learn about another perk the separates Congress from the
rest of us. Maybe it is the IRS opening an office in the Cannon House
Office Building to help members and staff prepare their taxes. Or
perhaps the Congressionally-funded FAA traffic controller revoking the
landing clearance of a commercial jet so that Congressman Ron Coleman
(D-TX) wouldn't have to circle. I grew up in Washington, D.C., so I
thought that I didn't have anything more to learn about politicians.
Jackley's strangely apolitical work casts a very different light on the
people we thought we knew.
Please do not call our elected officials whores. Most of the whores I know are pretty nice people and really try to serve their clients. They are also basically honest people.
-- Dudley Fort, February 23, 1998
There are whores in every organization/entity. A sort of whore pecking order, so to speak -- and they ARE whores. I served our great country as a Navy Air Traffic Controller for almost sixteen years. The fraud, waste, and abuse isn't limited to our illustrious congressmen and senators. I've directed many waveoffs and circumnavigations because of these so-called Department of Defense (i.e. USN Captains, Admirals, etc.) very important persons arriving at my airport.
-- Gary Chambers, April 21, 1999
On the legal monopoly of West Publishing. A good example of a once necessary evil, the West citation system, refusing to give way to new tech. Although I haven't practiced law since '86, the dead tree approach of isles of book shelves and tables stacked with open volumes still lingers in my memory. You probably have considered a system of uploading all decisions, with citation links rather than page numbers, so I can upload my brief to the court's Net page. West's system is actually redundant. One can cite the original hard copy dicision as issued by the court, and a lot of the judges post these on the Net (West repaginates it in a condensed multi-column form). Wow, I can't think of anything more condusive to a good brief than html links.
-- Peter M. Arnow, September 21, 1999
On the legal monopoly of West Publishing. A good example of a once necessary evil, the West citation system, refusing to give way to new tech. Although I haven't practiced law since '86, the dead tree approach of aisles of book shelves and tables stacked with open volumes still lingers in my memory. You probably have considered a system of uploading all decisions, with citation links rather than page numbers, so I can upload my brief to the court's Net page. West's system is actually redundant. One can cite the original hard copy dicision as issued by the court, and a lot of the judges post these on the Net (West repaginates it in a condensed multi-column form). Wow, I can't think of anything more conducive to a good brief than html links.
-- Peter M. Arnow, September 21, 1999
As an attorney currently practicing in New York, I thought you might be interested in West Publishing Company's latest "improvement" in service. For several years, they've offered law firms like mine a CD-ROM service with commands almost identical to those in Westlaw, allowing attorneys to do online research for a fixed monthly charge instead of $2.50/minute on Westlaw, and without having to learn a new system. The CD-ROM database was always a month or so behind, but it didn't matter because a 30-second search on Westlaw would show you whether anything newer had come down, so you hardly needed Westlaw at all.Then, about a month ago, I retrieved and printed a clean copy of a case I'd retrieved once before and discovered a change: the old printout had page numbers for both New York's official publication and West's own unofficial publication (which you can't cite to a court). The new printout of the same case shows the opening page number for both publications, but only the West page numbers for succeeding pages. My firm's librarian called West about the problem, and they confirmed that the official page numbers would no longer be provided on the CD-ROM version.
The result is that now, for any research you do on the CD-ROM version, you must look up all internal page numbers again, either on Westlaw for $2.50/minute, or by continuing to subscribe to West's hardcopy version. Isn't monopoly wonderful?
-- Michael Taglieri, February 23, 2000
I wanted to invite you to visit www.svote.com where we match registered voters to political candidates for every race in every election -- from the local school board to the Presidential race. www.svote.comThank you!
-- Ross Willingham, February 4, 2004
"..it is worth pointing out that Hitler original plan was not to kill Jews"
Either you have a very disturbing, unconscious cogitation that you are unaware off or you have missed the gate of "I am a smart guy and know how to articulate things without making my actual motivation to apparent". If latter applies, let me tell you: You have entered the room quiote obviously!! Quoting you: "It is currently fashionable to demonize Adolf Hitler and the Germans who voted for him and his policies." Sounds like you perceive it as wrong to demonize Adolf Hitler. It is appaling that you concoct your own, new and personal "sort of facts" in order to adjudge those who rightfully remind the needful (maybe you're own of them) about the undescribable Nazi events that took place.Quoting you: "However it is worth pointing out that Hitler original plan was not to kill Jews;.."
Oh, right..so he wasn't a bad guy after all, let's forget what he did and only judge him for what he might have planned ignoring the outcome(s).
Quoting you: "..he wanted to take their property and then kick them out of Europe."
Ah..I see. Only that?? That makes him such a better person.
Quoting you: "The U.S. and Britain, which together controlled the seas, were the largest obstacle to the German plan of expelling Jews... Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" was a solution to the problem of "there are no countries that are willing to accept Europe's Jews", not to the problem of "we really enjoy killing Jews and how can we kill as many as possible?"
Are you sure you know what you are saying? I hereby invite you to come visit me and I will show you Mauthausen or Ausschwitz personally!
So, being a critical mind I condemn you for your truly evident style of tone in this "text or comment" of yours (and that's all it is, no way near a historical or political analysis) that the U.S. and the U.K. pushed poor pal Hitler and the Nazi Regime into an unavoidable, no-way-out situation of starting machined holocaust. WHERE (???) is your sensitive "stop bar light" reminding people that NOTHING CAN EVER JUSTIFY what was done to civilians, people or HUMAN BEINGS for that matter???(You seem to forget that it's not jews, arabs etc.. but about human beings!!).
So, a short reminder for you: Hitler and the Nazi Regime killed people not only during the actions and the course of wars but they have also published and agreed on laws that divided mankind into races and classes thereby deciding which ones deserve to live and which do not. If you let humans die and rot like old vegetables no one can take himself the right to explain that all this happened solely because "there are no countries that are willing to accept Europe's Jews". The only acceptable reason to analyze what could have led to those catastrophic events is to make sure it shall never happen ever again.
Patrick
-- Patrick L., March 26, 2008
Patrick L.He didn't say that Nazi Germany was not evil. He said that is is currently fashionable to *say* it was evil. At one time it was fashionable to say it was *not*.
-- Bob Wakefield, November 25, 2009
If the liberal media were to devote 10%, of the time spent on the Patraeus affair, to the unanswered questions we have on the four murdered Americans in Libya, I might consider them journalists.
-- Charles Yahn, November 14, 2012
