"The court trusts..."

From the New York Times s

[T]he judge who sentenced I. Lewis Libby Jr. to prison this week issued an order dripping with sarcasm after receiving a supporting brief from a dozen prominent legal scholars, including Alan M. Dershowitz of Harvard and Robert H. Bork, the former Supreme Court nominee.

The judge, Reggie B. Walton of Federal District Court in Washington, said he would be pleased to see similar efforts for defendants less famous than Mr. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

“The court trusts,” Judge Walton wrote, in a footnote longer than the order itself, that the brief for Mr. Libby “is a reflection of these eminent academics’ willingness in the future to step up to the plate and provide like assistance in cases involving any of the numerous litigants, both in this court and throughout the courts of our nation, who lack the financial means to fully and properly articulate the merits of their legal positions.”

“The court,” he added, “will certainly not hesitate to call for such assistance from these luminaries.”

Steps forward

Went online and requested the Applications for BU's Grad program and the Law School.
FEB 1 is THE BIG DAYS, even tho Law School is March 1.

Isn't this some crazy shit?

Teen-repellent shop siren silenced by human rights fears

Mar 24 12:56 PM US/Eastern

A high-tech alarm audible only to youngsters which has dramatically cut loutish behaviour outside a British shop must be switched off over fears it infringes human rights, police said.

The Mosquito emits an irritating high-pitched pulse that most people aged under 20 can hear but almost nobody over 30 can.

The Spar grocery shop on Caerlon Road in Newport, south Wales said anti-social behaviour had plunged by 84 percent outside the premises since it was installed earlier this year.

However, human rights concerns have swatted The Mosquito -- and stung the shop's furious managers in the process.

"It's absolutely disgusting," a spokesman for the shop said.

"These louts can infringe on our rights to run a profitable shop for the community yet we can't dare infringe on their right to loiter and make life a misery for our shoppers," the BBC quoted him as saying.

A police spokesman said: "Gwent Police agreed to monitor a trial at a retail premises on Caerleon Road and there was an initial indication that it was successful at deterring anti-social behaviour and was positively received by the local community.

"However, it was decided by the Newport Community Safety Partnership (NCSP) that before endorsing the device, issues concerning health and safety and human rights need to be resolved."

A concerned NCSP spokesman told the BBC: "If the noise upset a baby in a pram or caused a dog in a neighbouring house to bark incessantly then these are issues we would have to address."

FOIA LINKS from Sunshine Week

From PBS


Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Classification Rules
Freedom of Information Act History
State Freedom of Information Act Map
Reporter's Notebook on FOIA
Interview with the Albrights
The Domestic Spying Controversy
Freedom of Information Act Resources
NOW on Civil Liberties and National Security

"open government is good government"

You gotta fucking be kidding me

D’oh! More know Simpsons than Constitution

Study: America more familiar with cartoon family than First Amendment

Updated: 1:22 a.m. ET March 1, 2006

CHICAGO - Americans apparently know more about “The Simpsons” than they do about the First Amendment.

Only one in four Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.

But more than half can name at least two members of the cartoon family, according to a survey.

The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just one in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms.

Joe Madeira, director of exhibitions at the museum, said he was surprised by the results.

“Part of the survey really shows there are misconceptions, and part of our mission is to clear up these misconceptions,” said Madeira, whose museum will be dedicated to helping visitors understand the First Amendment when it opens in April. “It means we have our job cut out for us.”

The survey found more people could name the three “American Idol” judges than identify three First Amendment rights. They were also more likely to remember popular advertising slogans.

It also showed that people misidentified First Amendment rights. About one in five people thought the right to own a pet was protected, and 38 percent said they believed the right against self-incrimination contained in the Fifth Amendment was a First Amendment right, the survey found.

The telephone survey of 1,000 adults was conducted Jan. 20-22 by the research firm Synovate and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

_________________________________________________________

Editor's note: The five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment are freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.

Pictures from Brueghel inside the big box bookstore

So many poems have been written.

Stevens. Whitman. Hughes. Rumi. Bukowski. Jewel.

Two tattered men, seemingly homeless, are sitting at separate tables against the wall near the Poetry section at the Barnes & Noble. One is leafing through a large book, I think about the Civil War. The other is carefully inking drawings on sheets of yellow-lined paper. I ask to borrow his pen to write this down on both sides of my Starbucks reciept.

Tall Decaf Mocha. $3.13 with tax.

I can smell the stench of street on him. I return his black rollerball pen. He asks me the time. About 9:45 p.m.

Stevie asks me if I am writing in Elvish again. Jade looks up from the book he's reading, a high-brow dissertation about a porn convention. He explains to me how the male reptile brain first sees boobs when it comes to things like the angsty teen-aged pop songwriter Jewel. I was unaware her breast were larger than average.

For myself, for Valentine's Day, I bought a copy of William Carlos Williams's Pictures from Brueghel and other poems , plus study guides for the GRE and LSAT, and one about the MAT for Jen.

354 days until Judgement Day.


Fragment

as for him who
finds fault
may silliness

and sorrow
overtake him
when you wrote

you did not
know
the power of

your words

~ WCW