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March 31, 2012

At Bennet Kelley's ILC Cyber Report: Full Text of FTC Privacy Proposal.

Bennet Kelley's Internet Law Center has provided a summary and the full text of the long-awaited Federal Trade Commission report released Monday. See this link. Expanding on the preliminary staff report it issued in December 2010, the FTC has called on companies handling consumer data to implement recommendations for privacy protection that features:

(i) "privacy by design",

(ii) giving consumers a “simple, easy way to control the tracking of their online activities”, and

(iii) greater transparency so that consumers can access data collected on them.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)

March 29, 2012

In The Irish Times today: Democracy in Africa edges forward.

Do see "Africa's Democracy" in The Irish Times today. Excerpts:

The contrast over the last week between the stories of Senegal and Mali speaks eloquently of Africa’s unsteady path to democracy half a century after both countries celebrated their independence. In Senegal, following elections on Sunday, power transferred peacefully from defeated incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade to his rival, Macky Sall, while in Mali soldiers last Thursday seized power after two decades of relatively successful democratic rule.

The coup, triggered by army anger at the government’s handling of a northern rebellion, has been condemned by the UN, Mali’s neighbours and major powers. Yesterday, however, in the capital Bamako, several thousand came out to oppose “foreign interference”.

Across the region, democracy, despite setbacks, has been edging forward. In Niger and in Guinea, military rulers surrendered power to the people over the past 18 months. In Ivory Coast, an attempt to ignore an election victory by Ouattara provoked a citizen uprising successfully backed by foreign intervention. In Liberia, a losing opposition candidate cried foul last autumn after a poll widely seen as fair. The voters were not moved. And even Nigeria’s imperfect elections last spring were a step forward.

Reuters: Malian soldiers and security forces last week after announcing a coup d'etat in Bamako, the capital.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:27 AM | Comments (0)

March 27, 2012

Day 2 of historic SCOTUS health care legislation argument: Under the Commerce Clause, can the government make me eat Broccoli, too? Spinach? Discuss.

How far does my beloved Commerce Clause go, anyway? See, e.g., the Wall Street Journal today. The main issue of course is whether Congress can require Americans to obtain health insurance--or pay a penalty as part of their income taxes. But there's much more to it. I am in DC today working on something unrelated but involving government intrusion, biz rights, people rights. So, speaking of the Commerce Clause, can the government make me eat Spinach? Or Broccoli? Because they are good for me? You get the idea. It's a fair question.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Still Smokin' in North Braddock, PA: Edgar Thomson Works.

2012

1907

The Edgar Thomson Works, just a few miles from downtown Pittsburgh, has produced steel since 1872.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2012

DFW

Dallas-Fort Worth. I love The Metroplex. One of my favorite cities. But I've never loved the DFW airport where, unexpectedly for weather-related reasons, I spent the better part of Monday and Tuesday while trying to get here to DC. Some lost time. Seven hours allotted for travel turns into thirty-six. Lesson: You can and should plan on a little disruption. You just can't plan its type or length, especially if either Nature or American Airlines are involved. I am humbled.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:17 AM | Comments (0)

March 19, 2012

Atlantic Review: "Best Music Videos for the US Elections".

Need perspective? Whenever you can, please visit our Berlin-based friends at the enduring Atlantic Review, a press digest and online magazine founded by American and German Fulbright Alumni in 2003. Like me, AR mainstay and co-founder Joerg Wolf grows weary of watching the GOP candidates this election cycle ensure a second term for our transformational if often-floundering young U.S. president--but Joerg does like the rock 'n roll part, as it were. Everywhere you go, pols wanna rock. And is Santorum's staff far out, or what? Dang.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:45 AM | Comments (0)

March 14, 2012

Mitt Romney's Never-Ending Rick Santorum Nightmare.

No matter what you think of Rick Santorum's conservative and often 18th century social, religious and political views, let's give him some credit. Like him or not, Santorum has tapped into a huge "at-large" constituency of voters in the American South, West and Midwest. These voters have always been there--and been there for the taking. The mainstream media and just about anyone else who comments on politics couldn't pick up on the Santorum Sleeping Giant factor that quickly. The reason? We live, breathe, dance and listen to the rhythms of the coasts.

Don't worry. Rick Santorum won't be your next president. But it's been nice to have a guy in the race who keeps pandering to a minimum. You know what he believes. He talks about it. And, man, does this guy have followers all over America. You want to change America? Then work on Santorum's far-flung voters--the vast majority of them are wonderful humans who just think and feel differently than you on many issues, often for good reasons. But not on Santorum. He's not "the problem". See, e.g., The Guardian today: Rick Santorum Wins Mississippi and Alabama Primaries--Live Reaction.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)

March 12, 2012

In the Beginning, we were all Excellent. And then we all became Creative.

Get the net, Justin. You must hand it to the watchers of our new flat commercially egalitarian world. Apparently, in the new digital vortex, all humans are Excellent and Creative. How could we have missed this? See in the Wall Street Journal this past weekend How To Be Creative. Hey, anyone can do it.

WSJ/Philip Montgomery/Serge Bloch

Posted by JD Hull at 03:23 AM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2012

Writers Gotta Write: The Return of Simple Justice.

New York criminal defense lawyer Scott Greenfield teased us (me, anyway) at first in a few outings for old times' sake soon after he shut down Simple Justice, his enormously popular blog, on February 13, the day of the site's fifth anniversary. It was hard to say what, if anything, a post-closing post here and there at the old site signaled about the trial lawyer's plans for the future. Don't jump the gun, you told yourself. It might not mean anything but a cooling-off gesture, a victory lap or two around the track for a winning half-decade of quality. But two days ago, in this post, Greenfield made it clear that he was back to his Spartan early morning keyboard regime of reading, thinking, evaluating, reacting, calling-out and inspiring and irritating a remarkably broad spectrum of people in several English-speaking nations. The Return of Greenfield is very good news for a notoriously dodgy and new world neighborhood: The Internet.

Posted by JD Hull at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)

Stanford Law's Amalia Kessler: Adhesion, Arbitration and the American bias against ADR.

Full Ajudication: Expensive but American. For an unusually good explanation of why Americans historically have resisted arbitration and other ADR, see the op-ed piece by Stanford law professor Amalia Kessler entitled "Stuck in Arbitration", which appeared earlier this week in the New York Times. Excerpt:

The standard historical account begins with the Federal Arbitration Act [1925], but the practice of extrajudicial dispute resolution has a much longer history.

Mid-19th century Americans across several territories and states — including Florida, California and New York — engaged in a nearly forgotten debate concerning “conciliation courts.”

Widely adopted throughout Europe and its colonies during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, these were institutions composed of respected community leaders seeking to persuade disputants to accept an equitable compromise in secret, lawyer-free proceedings and without regard to the formal rule of law.

Despite the efforts of American proponents of these courts, proposals to establish them went nowhere.

In the view of their opponents (including businessmen and lawyers), such courts were incompatible with the American commitment to freedom. Adjudication, they successfully insisted, was a vital bulwark of liberty. It enabled individuals to publicly assert their rights as equal citizens under the law.

As one delegate to the 1846 New York State Constitutional Convention argued, “In a free country like this” — one “where every man was the equal of his fellow-man” — “there would always be litigation.”

Posted by JD Hull at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2012

The American Prospect: On Newt Gingrich's Super-Bad Super Tuesday.

"Newt Gingrich had a terrible Super Tuesday." Even if they are waning, let's give Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul (and especially Paul) some credit for adding to the conversation America has every four years. I can't and won't vote for any of the GOP candidates we've been forced-fed so far. But each, especially Paul and Santorum, warts and all, is more authentic--i.e., like me, you may not "like" them or buy into them, but at least they actually believe what they are saying--than Romney, who America is about to meet on a much larger scale. While he is talented, smart and accomplished, Mitt is one very insular and uber-eccentric man, folks. My prediction: he will give most of us, at least us Yanks with intuition and horse sense, the King-Hell Creeps. See at Jay Harris's greatly new-and-improved The American Prospect this piece: Newt's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Super Bad Tuesday. It begins:

Newt Gingrich had a terrible Super Tuesday.

Yes, yes, he won Georgia, his home state, going away. But he not only failed to win any of the other nine states that held elections, he failed to place second in any of them as well.

He came in third in the other two Southern states that held contests—Tennessee and Oklahoma. In five states—Alaska, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, and Vermont—he ran fourth, behind Ron Paul.

Newt Gingrich in early 1995

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Esquire Magazine: "What the Hell Is Happening in Russia?"

Every month, both Esquire magazine and the Russian people get feistier and funnier. And although this Esquire piece appeared on March 2, just before Vladimir Putin's reelection on Sunday, March 4, it's the best current report on The Russian Bourgeoisie Gone Wild you could visit. Much of its power, and charm, comes from its timeline summaries of the uprising beginning with the December 4, 2011 protests. The truth--and the truth is especially important here, as we watch eastern Europeans change before our eyes into different kinds of voters and humans--is also hilarious. Note: If you don't think Russian politics affects your customers, clients, business or professional practice, think again. Excerpts from December 10th and 24 summaries:

DECEMBER 10: As more evidence of fraud and abuse from courts, police stations, and prisons hits Facebook, protesters organize another rally. Fifty to sixty thousand people (half of them registered in a Facebook event called "Rally for Fair Elections") come to Moscow's Bolotnaya Square, right across the river from the Kremlin, and meet under banners that vary from serious to silly: "No Taxation Without Representation," "I Didn't Vote for These Bastards, I Voted for the Other Bastards".

Even though the protesters chant, "Putin, Leave!", the mood of the whole movement is decidedly less aggressive. And even though the protesters' demands are clear — cancel the election results, fire Churov, punish those responsible for fraud, and set up fair elections — nobody really listens to the people who speak from the stage, mostly old-school oppositional leaders, from the Right and from the ultra-Left, who have fiercely fought Putin's regime for the last decade without much success and without many followers. Most of the protesters simply stand there, talking to their friends about where to go on YouTube to see fresh evidence of election fraud and where they should meet for drinks after the rally.

DECEMBER 24: Seventy thousand to eighty thousand people meet on Sakharov Avenue, and this time they are pissed. They meet under banners that read "We Are Not Monkey People, and Russia Is No Jungle" and play on Putin's "condom" comment by referring to him as a "scumbag." They reiterate their calls for free and fair elections, and in theory the authorities could easily go through with all these demands. In the twelve years of Putin's reign, the Russian parliament has become totally dependent on the presidency, its members — irrespective of party affiliation — voting according to instructions from the government.

Esquire/(Top) Denis Sinyakov/Reuters; (bottom left) Max Avdeev; (bottom right) GREENFIELD/SIPA

Posted by JD Hull at 07:02 PM | Comments (0)

March 06, 2012

Think I'm turning Ayn Rand again. I really think so.

Only Twitter Wisdom so far in 2012:

@robdelaney Hey Ayn Rand's ghost, what if Atlas *HUGGED* instead? Think about it, get back to me.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

Over at A Public Defender: "The United States of China".

They’ve struck viewership gold, with 40 million viewers every Saturday night for 5 years.

Here's a short but powerful new post--and disturbing glimpse into China entertainment and sensibilities, as well as its justice system--by one Gideon at A Public Defender. On its own, this kind of writing and useful spotlighting may redeem much of the lameness, irrelevancy and provincialism that is too often legal blogging. See for yourself. Meet China's family horror death penalty reality TV show in "The United States of China".

Posted by JD Hull at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2012

Right on schedule, Mom-and-Pop Russia claw again at Putin.

CBS News at Pushkin Square today: Russian cops violently break up Putin protest.

RIA Novosti/Ramil Sitdikov

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

King Putin: "I promised you we would win. We have won. Glory to Russia".

But Mother Russia? She'll still take Gandhi-like to the streets today. She still doesn't like the dog food. Her Mom-and-Pop middle class and younger professionals finally got an outrageous mojo working last December and they are hungry and poised for more protests. See at Reuters "Russia's Putin Faces Protests After Poll Triumph". Vladimir Putin won yesterday, even if you accept as true allegations of violations and fishy votes, but he's:

on collision course with the mainly middle-class protesters who have staged rallies in the capital and other big cities since a disputed parliamentary poll on December 4.

The protest organizers, who see Putin as an autocratic leader whose return to power will stymie hope of economic and political reforms, said their demonstrations would now grow.

Despite the opposition, mainly among well-educated and relatively well-off young professionals, Putin's support remains high in the provinces and his victory had not been in doubt.

But the mood has shifted in the country of 143 million and the urban protest movement portrays him as an obstacle to change and the guardian of a corrupt system of power.

Reuters: The triumphant but spooked Putin yesterday.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:42 AM | Comments (0)

March 02, 2012

Closing older power plants: The end of Tall Stacks? Maybe. And electricity prices may soar.

In the Midwest and East, you may lose a few jobs, too. See this one at the Washington Post: Utilities announce closure of 10 aging power plants in Midwest, East.

Power Plant, Tall Stacks, Morro Bay, California

Posted by JD Hull at 02:08 PM | Comments (0)

Come back Monday. Come back Tuesday.

Billy? He got down on his hands & knees. He said, hey momma, let me check your oil alright? She said, no, no honey, not tonite. Come back Monday, come back Tuesday, then I might.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)

March 01, 2012

Lawyering in America: Try being who you really are. Thursdays, for starters.

Masquerading as a normal person day after day is exhausting.

--Unknown

Great clients love authentic humans. Get off your knees.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Environmental Protection: New ocean radar treaty of 153 nations covers spilled oil, debris, tsunamis, bodies.

Here's a positive upshot of America's months-long Gulf of Mexico spill in 2010. At Environmental Protection, do see "153 Countries Sign Treaty on Ocean Radar Improvements". The meeting of The International Telecommunication Union’s World Radiocommunication Conference 2012 (WRC-12) took place from Jan. 23 to Feb. 17 in Geneva, Switzerland, and

concluded with agreement on a number of items, including improved ocean radar technology. This will yield better tracking of tsunamis, oil spills, ocean debris, and people lost at sea, according to the National Science Foundation (NSF).

After recent destructive tsunamis and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill increased interest in ocean radars, which have operated informally and would be quickly shut down if they caused interference with other radio systems, according to NSF.

But action taken at the meeting provides specific radio frequency bands for ocean radars-–small systems typically installed on beaches and using radio signals to map ocean currents to distances as far as 100 miles.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)