"Undervisited Blawgs"

So sayeth Prof. Kerr of The Conspiracy about Appellate Law & Practice, Legal Fiction, and CrimLaw.
- posted by C @ 5:22:00 PM

 
Two books

For those who don't know, I have a bit of an addiction. I am addicted to books. Not necessarily reading books to completion, mind you...but, I am addicted to books nonetheless. Today's manifestation of this plague occurred as follows:

I was reading a blog post which mentioned Bob Woodward's The Brethren

I realized I had intended to read this book a while back but hadn't done so

The library had a copy

The library also had copies of many of Woodward's works

I realized I had intended to read several other of his books (The Agenda, Plan of Attack, Bush At War, and the recently-published The Secret Man) and hadn't done so [additionally, the library had another that I'd never heard of (The Veil)].

Some of these titles reminded me that I hadn't read Imperial Hubris

Having gone to BN.com, I saw several other recommended books which caught my eye

Before I knew it, I had a list of 16 books that I wanted to read. [Ed. note: I have several similar rabbit-trail lists of books scattered throughout my desk at work, my desk at home, a file folder at home, etc.]

I won't mention the fact that when I went to the Library to check out The Brethren at lunch I spotted two more books of interest (Cornell West's Democracy Matters and Nick Kotz's Judgment Days).

All this is backstory to the fact that the purpose of my visit to the library was to return Linda Greenhouse's Becoming Justice Blackmun in "exchange" for two books: Woodward's The Brethren and Kristin Gore's novel, Sammy's Hill.

In other bibliographical news...two new books on or near the market find themselves on my radar: Justice Stephen G. Breyer's Active Liberty and Prof. Akhil Amar's America's Constitution: A Biography.
- posted by C @ 5:21:00 PM 0 comments

 
[sigh]

I swear...there's more important things going on in the world today...

Like the new product(s) from Apple: the iPod nano and the first iTunes-compatible cell phone.
- posted by C @ 5:21:00 PM 0 comments

 
In other (Katrina) news...

Reuters reports on the "racial gulf" (i.e. poverty) that has been exposed by the Katrina disaster.

WaPo's Dan Balz has this analysis of the President's political troubles.

Anne Applebaum's column explores "Planning for Next Time."

Harold Myerson's column, "The 'Stuff Happens' Presidency."
- posted by C @ 5:20:00 PM

 
"Refugee": an update

I mentioned earlier that members of the Congressional Black Caucus took issue with the use of the label "refugee" to describe the displaced residents of New Orleans. The WaPo goes a step further and carries this article on the subject. It turns out that the victims are offended by the label (and rightfully so).

What is most striking for me is not the conviction with which the victims speak; rather, it is the fact that the victims differentiate themselves from who they think of when they hear the word "refugee." From the article, one man says,

"The image I have in my mind is people in a Third World country, the babies in Africa that have all the flies and are starving to death," he says, while sitting outside Baton Rouge's convention center, where 5,000 displaced residents are being housed. "That's not me. I'm a law-abiding citizen who's working every day and paying taxes."

He's absolutely right: that's exactly what Americans think of when they hear the word "refugee." The man is absolutely right when he says that he's not the same.

Or, is he?

His description of what he thinks of is a dead-on accurate description of a "refugee"; it's also a dead-on accurate description of the conditions in and around New Orleans. What is most disturbing is not that Americans are being called "refugees"; what's most disturbing is that the label fits. We want to believe that we could never find ourselves in the same situation as "people in a Third World country, the babies...that have all the flies and are starving to death." But, that's how bad it is.

To paraphrase my earlier discussion of this topic: the sooner we realize this reality, the sooner we can get serious about not just fixing the current crisis but making sure that it never happens again.
- posted by C @ 5:17:00 PM

 
From the NYT:

"Haunted by Hesitation"

Maureen Dowd has this column in today's NYT which fits nicely with her Sunday column, "United States of Shame."

The Administration Is Flat

Thomas L. Friedman, author of The World is Flat, has a spectacular column on the Administration's style and how it doesn't fit with appropriately responding to Katrina. A must-read for those who don't like Maureen Dowd's style but are knowledgable enough to know that something must be said.

A Broad Stroke

In this column Nicholas Kristof discusses Katrina in a different light: what it says about our approach to poverty's toll on children.
- posted by C @ 5:15:00 PM 0 comments

 
Taxation without Representation

The fine folks at DCVote issued this press release remembering Chief Justice Rehnquist as a supporter of DC voting rights.
- posted by C @ 5:30:00 PM

 
Summary of Conservative Response

Chris Bowers has a summary of some of our nation's conservative voices and their take on Katrina's aftermath. Please read it.
- posted by C @ 5:24:00 PM

 
Does conservatism beget poor governance?

Greg Anrig, Jr., has an interesting piece of commentary on the subject at TPMCafe.com.
- posted by C @ 5:22:00 PM 0 comments

 
U.S. Constitution on the go

Download a copy of the U.S. Constitution for your iPod, thanks to ACS.

Now, Dr. Glenn can replace his old laundered pocket version of the revered document with a more hip version.

The real question is whether originalists will accept this manifestation: surely the Framers did not envision such a use for their handiwork. I can't find the word "iPod" anywhere in the U.S. Constitution; therefore, "iPods" don't exist. (But the right to a missile launcher does.)
- posted by C @ 5:14:00 PM 0 comments

 
Silver Fox bites back

If you wondered how the President's mother felt about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina...she provided an answer yesterday on Marketplace:

Almost everyone I've talked to says we're going to move to Houston. What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this [chuckles slightly] is working very well for them."

Wow. Brings attention to the word "underprivileged" in a whole new way.
- posted by C @ 5:00:00 PM 0 comments

 

I have a collection of bookmarks that I visit many times each day. Most are blogs -- more specifically, newsblogs or blawgs -- and they cover much of the ideological and political spectrum.

Ok. That's not entirely true: while my list of bookmarks originally included a wide variety, I have gradually eliminated many of the blogs which provided the weight on the right side of the scale. Hold your horses, this is not a statement of censorship or intolerance of opposing viewpoints. It is, however, a statement about my desire to come home to a discussion that is more often than not palatable rather than one which exacerbates the headache and/or depression which the day's news itself has caused.

One of the blogs/newsblogs/blawgs that has survived the evolutionary trend is The Volokh Conspiracy. While its general tone is politically conservative, I find this tilt is due in large part to the political and professional background (and/or ambitions) of each individual contributor rather than to an organized "conspiracy." There are two exceptions to this general rule:

I enjoy the contributions of Orin Kerr almost always. Prof. Kerr is an expert in computer law and employs a focused approach to the subject at hand rather than an agenda-driven diatribe. In that sense, he's entirely inappropriate for the blogosphere. I have disagreed with Prof. Kerr's postings on Volokh, but his presence may be singularly responsible for The Conspiracy's survival in my Battle of the Bookmarks.

On the other hand there are several individuals who post on The Conspiracy who I do not enjoy. Their bias may be due to recent positions in an administration which does not allow constructive dissent; or, their bias may be due to a method of reading the U.S. Constitution which would favor a federal government which exists only to provide assault weapons to "desired" citizens. Whatever the source, their bias poisons their contributions to The Conspiracy to a point of repugnance which I often cannot overcome.

Let me be clear. I understand that one should listen to all viewpoints. I try to do so. But my tolerance is often challenged such as when a Conspirator recently wrote that a solution to the problems in New Orleans must be vigilante execution:

Given the absence of a sufficient police presence in order to stop the looters, I strongly agree with Glenn Reynolds that such looters should be shot on sight by armed citizens. A citizen's arrest and detention isn't possible as a practical matter. Shooting the New Orleans looters is, under present circumstances, an appropriate response to the collapse of civic order, and a first step towards the restoration of that order.

QUESTION: Must we be tolerant of intolerant viewpoints?

One of the most frustrating aspects of life in today's political climate is the high level of ignorance. The disaster in New Orleans has brought to the forefront new layers to this ignorance of life in the "other America."

The recent discussion has reminded me of a young student who participated in a discussion of poverty in North Philadelphia by expressing disbelief: "There are plenty of jobs in the suburbs...poor people can't complain when they aren't willing to drive to the suburbs to work?" We laughed when he said it and then quickly stopped when we realized he was serious; he explained that he had lived his entire life in a bubble that will never burst.

Not everyone has a car in which to pursue a job or flee an oncoming hurricane. Before we discuss (1) how people have come to be too poor to have sufficient private transportation, (2) why jobs/housing/safety is beyond reach for those who do not have private transportation, (3) why those poor persons who cannot afford transportation are concentrated in isolated geographic areas which requires extensive transportation to/from housing/jobs/services, (4) why private transportation is necessary (and no viable public transportation is available)...I arrive at the purpose of this long post (when it rains, it pours). Today, The Volokh Conspiracy included this post by Todd Zywicki which argues that increased -- not decreased -- ownership of SUVs may be one way to help Americans avoid some of the tragedy of future Hurricane Katrinas. I encourage you to read the comments, as well.
- posted by C @ 4:46:00 PM

 
Starting over...

As I mentioned in my allocution below/above, I may spring a leak and actually discuss my thoughts on the recent events. In the meantime, I will allow others' perspectives to speak for me.

(1) David "Not-A-Leftie" Brooks wrote on the question of how Katrina fits into this decade's likely place in historybooks and, more importantly, what Katrina means for politics in the near future.

(2) A fomer SCOTUS clerk's entirely human obituary for "Bill Rehnquist" rather than the Chief Justice.

(3) Slate's frank analysis of the missing discussion of race/class and in coverage of Katrina. MUST-READ: Referenced in the commentary is the 2002 five-part series in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Washing Away.

(4) Another reason for change on Capitol Hill: just-passed bankruptcy bill will punish Katrina's victims.

(5) Orin Kerr at Volokh asked where is our nation's fearless leader? This time last year, our President was campaigning on a single-issue platform: I'm a better leader in times of trouble. He garnered more votes than his opponent; therefore, we have his brand of leadership to carry us through this crisis. Decide for yourself: how's he doing? NYT's editorial board assesses his belated speech to the nation like this.

(6) Even attempts to defend our government's reaction recognize the extensive failures which have culminated in the present situation. See here and here

(7) Victor Fleischer at TheConglomerate attempts to make a point that I cannot escape: Hurricane Katrina may be a natural occurrence but the disastrous effects and ensuing crisis are man-made and preventable. Someone used the word "negligence." Look it up:

The omission to do someting which a reasonable man, guided by those ordinary considerations which ordinarily regulate human affairs, would do, or the doing of something which a reasonable and prudent man would not do...
The failure to use such care as a reasonably prudent and carefule person would use under similar circumstances...
The doing of some act...or failure to do what a person of ordinary prudence would have done under similar circumstances...
Conduct which falls below the standard established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm...
That legal delinquency which results whenever a man fails to exhibit the care which he ought to exhibit, whether it be slight, ordinary, or great...
Characterized chiefly by inadvertence, thoughtlessness, inattention, and the like...

Black's Law Dict. See also Fault, Criminal Negligence, Gross Negligence, Negligent Homicide, Negligent Manslaughter.

In order to consider the depths of the negligence at play here, one must consider the approach our government (and society) has taken towards the poor in our midst and those segregated to "the other side of the tracks." What means of escape were made available to the segment of our society which is most vulnerable? How have they become "most vulnerable"?

(8) Via D. Berman's mention of the fact that our "current political reality" may impact the filling of the most recent vacancy on the SCOTUS, we find this article from yesterday's WaPo.

P.S. If you don't know what our "current political reality" is...it's time to wake up.

SideBar: is Hurricane Katrina the sounding of the nation's political alarm clock? Has the reverie ended for some of our citizens? What's that old quote about a leader's mettle revealed by the crises they face...

(9) A salient point was heard at a press conference held by the Congressional Black Caucus. The media continue to refer to those displaced by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermatch as "refugees." The Congresswoman stated that this adds insult to injury: they are not refugees, they are Americans. Those displaced are our brothers and sisters and the sooner we start referring to them as such, the sooner we as a nation will recognize that we owe them our all and the sooner they will realize that they can count on us.

(10) I think the one element of this whole mess can be found at the heart of the quasi-debate/quasi-agreement between Keven Drum and Andrew Sullivan about what the response to Katrina says about the liberal-conservative divide. Much has been written about this, but Prof. Althouse provides her own summary and opinion on the matter. Some have focused on how this disaster has revealed the underbelly of the the disparate worldviews held by liberals and conservatives. I agree.
- posted by C @ 11:48:00 AM 0 comments

 
I know, I know...

It's been forever since I last posted. There are several reasons:

(1) The news is infuriating (more on this later...maybe). Each time I tried to gather my thoughts, anger overcame rationality. As M. Doughty sang years ago:

I tried to shoot a thought, but the thought sunk.
Nothing to do but scratch words in the dirt and
Watch the water roll down.

(2) I've been trying to a better job of properly balancing my priorities. This meant less time on Blogger.com and more time talking with my wife.

(3) My computer crashed a few weeks back and I lost the ability to log into ecto. My laziness has grown.

(4) I found a new way to waste time.

Time to get back on the horse, I suppose.
- posted by C @ 11:47:00 AM