2/23/2006

medical

Mayo Clinic -
Palo Alto Medical Center - (Long) (Ususal)##
WebMD help consumers take an active role in managing their health by providing objective healthcare and lifestyle information

Kosmix Health Search --
Posted by at 3 comments:

1/20/2006

reform

We will be seeing lots of discussion about reform of the Congress
  1. The Abramoff Scandal Newt Gingridge
  2. Dueling reform packages only cosmetic (Capital Hill Blue)
  3. Government Ethics and Election Reform (Public Citizen)
  4. The Democratic Plan for Honest Leadership and Open Government, U.S. Sen. Feingold [S. 1398, the Lobbying and Ethics Reform Act (pdf)]
Posted by at 1 comment:

google

Google has been requested, and is resisting, provinding searches and ip addresses to the Justice departments. The original subpoena, originally signed on August 25, 2005
  1. Court Documents & Summary Of US Versus Google Over Search Data (Search Engine Watch)

    1. United States vs. Google Jan 18, 2006 (pdf)

    2. Declaration Of Joel McElvain -- a declaration by Government attorney, the lead attorney for the U.S. DOJ in this matter. It also helps produce a timeline of events to this point, Jan 18, 2006 (pdf)

    3. Declaration Of Philip B Stark -- a declaration by the person to work on the project, a Professor of Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley. (pdf)

  2. DOJ "justificatin" for Google subpenia, Friday, Feb 24, 2004 (Yahoo/AP)
  3. In Case About Google's Secrets, Yours Are Safe, Jan 26, 2004 (NYT)
  4. Google is working with a US intelligence agency to provide much more detailed information on its search engine users than that being requested by the Justice Department.
  5. Would You Like Those Alphabetically? Google v. the U.S. Government (techliberation)
  6. Google Resists U.S. Subpoena of Search Data (NYT)
  7. FAQ on what does the Google subpoenia mean? (News.com) -- "The Child Online Protection Act makes it a crime for a commercial Web site to post material that some jurors might find "harmful" if a minor stumbled across it."
  8. What Do the Feds Really Want From Google? (Gipe2ed) -- Well, the U.S. Supreme Court for one, which in 2004 barred enforcement of COPA because, while the law was having no noticeable impact on child pornography, it was clearly demonstrating "potential for extraordinary harm and a serious chill
    upon protected speech."
  9. It's hilarious that the US Justice Department is taking Google to court (O'Reilly) with a subpoena for "1 million random Web addresses." Why don't they just ask the US Chamber of Commerce for those addresses? Or, hey, O'Reilly has a book that can help

Posted by at 1 comment:

1/18/2006

supreme court

The "Assisted Suicide" decision of the supreme court can be looked at a number of ways. [Slate] [wsj] I suggest that there are a number of levels upon which the court can decide a case and that if the court decides the law is illegal on one level, then it makes no judgement on the case at "lower levels"
  1. Stare Decisis (wikipedia) -- The decision was already made in a similar case and should not be changed because: a) External conditions have not changed b) The application of the law is practical c) It is not too wrongly decided that it must be reconsidered.
  2. Letter of the Law -- The law being considered is "clearly" inappropriately applied.
  3. State vs Nation -- There are conflicting laws, State and Federal, and it is clear that this is an area in which the State or Federal law is applicable, e.g. Federalism vs. Commerce clause, Implementation of Constitutional rights, etc.
  4. Constitutional -- The law is in conflict with the constitution
  5. Morality -- There is a moral/religious principal that the law violates
  6. Liberty -- The law limits the liberty of the citizens.
Note: people can state that they do not think that the court should decide on the basis of Morality and Liberty and that the Constitution's text and Will of the People should be the ultimate authority. -- For these people, if a law is immoral or restrictive that it should be eliminated by the legislatures, direct democracy, or the amendment process.

Note: it seems that the Assisted Suicide case was generally decided on the basis of "2)" e.g. the Federal law was not written to deal with the use of legal drugs for the purpose of suicide, and thus the State Law was not in conflict. On the other hand: Thomis decided that the Federal Law should take precidence, based on Stare Desisis, "1)" as the California law was similar enough, and Schela and Roberts decided that the Federal law was sufficiently broad to cover the case and that the federal law could "trump" the State law, "3)", based on I assume the comerce clause.
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12/21/2005

computer_stores

Palo Alto area (Surplus)
 Links:
Posted by at 2 comments:

12/16/2005

legalities

In the past few days there have been some actions of the country that may, or may not be Legal or Desirable. This is a set of links to the discussions of them.


A) Domestic Wiretapping -- The NYT has reported that after Sept 11 the NSA (not a subgroup within the CIS) has started to 'wiretap' communications between US citizens (or to and from US locations) and Foreigners without getting authorization from the courts.
  1. Bush Secretly Lifted Some Limits on Spying in U.S. After 9/11, Officials Say -- Source Document
  2. This is against the law. the law forbids warrantless surveillance of US citizens, and it provides procedures to be followed in emergencies (Washington Monthly)
  3. see: Gilmor comment
  4. FISA information: (This year about 1,758 wiretap requests were made, 1,754of which were approved) [Table] -- The orders started out at 200/year in 1979, increased to 600/year in 1984, (increased 80/year), were relatively constant till 1994, and then incrased t0 1758 in 2004 (increased 128/year) -- It is estimated that the "Bush" wiretaping increased this by 500+.
  5. Bush Defends Anti-Terror Tactics in Press Session Bush Press conf. 12/17/2005
  6. Media Matters:

B) White Phosphorus used by American Marines in the siege of Fallujah. -- There are reports that white phosphorus was used and some suggest that it may have been illegally used.
  1. Has the Coalition Used Chemical Weapons in Iraq? -- states that the use of W.P. is legal
  2. Incendiary Politics by Clinton W. Taylor -- points out that incendiary devices were used in San Francisco, recently by the left and that they are not writing about this use.

C) Prisoner interrogation -- What level of interrogation should be used, and is legal for various levels of people who the Government has seized and what is the meaning of the McCain amendment?
  1. The McCain Amendment -- The Good , The (Potentially) Bad , The Ugly , What Would the Law Be, Anyway? (Balkinizan)
    1. CIA "Immunity"
    2. Admission of Evidence Obtained by Torture?
    3. Limitations on Detainees' Access to Judicial Review
    4. McCain Torture Policy Undercut By Levin-Graham Amendment
    5. McCain and Graham/Levin/Kyl Amendments

a) What is torture vs.. "Cruel and Inhuman" treatment.

b) What was the law on treating Government "prisoners", and how does this law differ for the various subsets of these subjects, (US Citizens/US located people/Foreigners) (People imprisoned {in US Controlled land/outside the US}) {Criminals/Prisoners of War/Enemy combatants) (US Military personnel/CIA employees/Contractors/Foreign agencies)

c) What are the "Escape Clauses": redaction to other places, Belief that one was following legal orders, use of info even if illegally obtained?

=======================================

Note: These discussions are included in a more general set of questions, e.g.

1) State of War: Is the action authorized under normal US law, Undeclared WAR military actions, Authorized State of War?

2) Authorized vs Not Prohibited: is the activity specifically authorized, not prohibited, or prohibited, and if in the neither specifically authorized or prohibited, should it be "taken" or not, or should the "Spirit of the law" be considered?

3) Overriding legality: Is the action acceptable (or not) based on Generally agreed upon principals, upon the US law and approved treaties, upon US law specifically, upon general congressional authorizations based on the "state of war", upon the general Commander in Chief authorization, e.g. the President and his agencies are authorized to do anything in support of their War Powers responsibility.

d) Senate Rejects Extension of Patriot Act (Sunset Clauses) but this does not effect our War on Terror re: Al-Qaida, Hamas, see top of Page 2

Link:
  1. Gilmore
Posted by at 10 comments:

12/11/2005

redistricting

A congressional bill setting standards for redistricting all states objectively at the same time: H.R. 2642 and 4094 -- Already more than 60 U.S. House Members have signed onto such bills introduced this year by Congressman John Tanner and Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.

Links:
Posted by at 1 comment:

12/01/2005

products

Nokia 1100 (SpeakOut) Cell Phone
 Sony SFR-M37V Radio ~$35.00 -- FM/AM/Weather/TV Radio Walkman with 25 Memory Presets
Truly,net MP301 (256K) MP3 Player
SOFTWARE
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11/23/2005

turnover

I have put "my" proposal for an "centerist" Iraq Turnover plan in Gillmor's Blog. It proposes:
  1. Stay thru the end of this year, 2005
  2. Train and equip about 20,000 Iraq troops/month (withdraw 1:2 of our troops)
  3. Withdraw as the Iraq provines determine (and perhaps faster)
  4. Commit to TOTAL withdrawal, and contract re-negotiation
  5. Pay about $2 b/month until we are withdrawn for reconstruction
Suggest
  • Oil revenues allocated per person (e.g. see: Instapundit on WSJ editorial)
  • Contracts terms limited to allow future modifications
I suggest that this proposal is not a "Cut and Run", but a plan for turning over the responsibility for protecting Iraq to its government and people as they determine and assisted by us, and perhaps as they are starting to request.

Also see:
Links:
I am Requesting that the material be provided in pm3 format (with Podcast notification) for the sites that do not so do, as follows, of course anyone else who supports this request might notify the stite that they also would like ml3 formats:

  • ==============================================
I may have requested this before, since they are generally devoid of
important, video content, also provide a standard MP3 audio feed/file for
the lectures, in addition to propriety video formats.

Note: At the head of the audio, of course you can put a "Copyright Comment" and a link to your restrictions so that people do not use the files in a way that you prefer they not use them.

Then, I'd like you to publish a PodCast for your lectures (and then perhaps
put in Itunes subscribe button)
  • =======================================
Ownership Society
Posted by at No comments:

11/18/2005

privacy

Summary of Privacy Taxonomy (LawMeme)
Fact and Fiction on Evolution: Intelligent design's five favorite myths (Reason)
Did the tax cuts actually help? The boom that wasn't: The economy has little to show for $860 billion in tax cuts (epi)

WMDgate: Fixing Intelligence Around Policy - The Aluminum Tubes, (LeftCoster)
    (see Introduction and Parts 1, 2A-1, 2A-2, 2A-3, 2A-4, 2A-5, 2B-1, 2B-2, 2C, 3, 3A , 4A) Iraq on the Record: Bush Administration officials about the threat posed by Iraq by Rep. Henry A. Waxman
    $100 laptop
    Making the Most of Your iPod With Internet Radio By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

    PROGRESSIVE TAXATION (Washington Monthly)
    Ten Democrat pledges (AlterNet)
    1. We Will Bring the Troops Home.
      We Will Crack Down on Corruption.
      We Will Make Public Officials Accountable,
      We Will Unleash New Energy for America.
      We Will Rebuild America First.
      We Will Make Work Pay Once Again.
      We Will Make Healthcare Affordable.
      We Will Protect Retirement Security.
      We Will Keep the American Dream Alive.
      We Will Provide Real Security for America.

    Links:
    Posted by at 2 comments:

    11/01/2005

    Alito decisions

    What the Alito Nomination Means for Constitutional Law
    (Balkinization) (FindLaw) (TmpCage) (Wikipedia)
    Activist judge = Overturns laws (as pointed out before many definitons of activism are not objective and depend on the "after" the fact defininition of the commenter)

    Libertarian judge by James Ostrowski -- would tend to favor:
    1. The individual in any conflict with the government.
    2. State governments over the federal government.
    3. The legislature over the executive at any level of government.

    University of Michigan data
    Why the Senate Should Confirm Judge Alito: By SCOTT GERBER (FindLaw)

    Factors to consider when making a merit-based evaluation of a candidate
    1. Demonstrated judicial temperament
    2. Professional expertise and competence
    3. Absolute personal as well as professional integrity
    4. An able, agile, lucid mind
    5. Appropriate professional educational background or training
    6. The ability to communicate clearly, both orally and in writing, and especially the latter
    7. Resolute fair-mindedness
    8. A solid understanding of the proper judicial role of judges under our Constitution
    9. Ascertainable good health.

    Links:
    Posted by at 2 comments:

    10/14/2005

    wealth

    Business week has a chart of the US "Houshold" wealth: Since I was suggesting we consider taxing Wealth, rather than, or partially in replacement for, income, as more accuratly reflecting the social benefit that people get from the country, I am linking to this article.

    Note: I will add other links as appropriate and any comments that people want to add to point to more information on the US Wealth, its distribution, or other related material is welcome.

    Other related Blogs...
      • "Liberals" in our current parlance are those who focus on using taxpayer money to help better society.
      • "Progressive" are those who focus on using government power to make large institutions play by a set of rules.
    Economics -- Online Economics Textbooks
    Un-Related 100 most often misspelled words
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    10/02/2005

    headstart

    Asymmetrical Information, in "Does IQ Matter", feels that Head Start programs are not very useful and points to the study of the more "effective" program, " is useless, and even expensive interventions like the Perry pre-school project produced results that are distinctly disappointing from a cognitive perspective.

    Of course the conclusions are debatable, the conclusion of the Perry project was:
    • A benefit-cost analysis was conducted by estimating the monetary value of the program and its effects in constant 2001 dollars discounted annually at 3%. Dividing the $105,324 in benefits per participant by the $14,716 in cost per participant results in a benefit-cost ratio of 716% of the program investment returned to the public.
    Posted by at No comments:

    9/25/2005

    postcast

    Podcast feeds
    1. Public Radio Podcasts
    Podcast readers
    1. Ipodder
    2. Itunes
    3. Feedreader
    Posted by at No comments:

    9/21/2005

    wiki

    There are a number of "general" structures of sites.

    Hierical sites -- Yes I know that all sites are hierical, but the original set of sites were generally relatively static with a main page, sub pages, etc.

    Blogs, Mailing lists -- e.g. linear sites -- Information is stored at the top, with the possibility of comments, fixed link out-pointers...

    Forums -- generally 2 level comment areas with generally: 1) Topics, 2) Item (comments...)

    Wikis -- sites that permit any set of approved (or all) users to edit any page.
    • Wikipedia -- the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
    • GrepWiki --a place where readers of Ed Foster's GripeLog can organize and share their experiences and opinions in the way they think best.
    Posted by at No comments:

    9/09/2005

    project-censored

    1. Bush Administration Moves to Eliminate Open Government
    2. Media Coverage Fails on Iraq: Fallujah and the Civilian Deathtoll
    3. Another Year of Distorted Election Coverage
    4. Surveillance Society Quietly Moves In
    5. U.S. Uses Tsunami to Military Advantage in Southeast Asia
    6. The Real Oil for Food Scam
    7. Journalists Face Unprecedented Dangers to Life and Livelihood
    8. Iraqi Farmers Threatened By Bremer’s Mandates
    9. Iran’s New Oil Trade System Challenges U.S. Currency
    10. Mountaintop Removal Threatens Ecosystem and Economy
    11. Mandatory Mental Screening Program Usurps Parental Rights
    12. Military in Iraq Contracts Human Rights Violators
    13. Rich Countries Fail to Live up to Global Pledges
    14. Corporations Win Big on Tort Reform, Justice Suffers
    15. Conservative Plan to Override Academic Freedom in the Classroom
    16. U.S. Plans for Hemispheric Integration Include Canada
    17. U.S. Uses South American Military Bases to Expand Control of the Region
    18. Little Known Stock Fraud Could Weaken U.S. Economy
    19. Child Wards of the State Used in AIDS Experiments
    20. American Indians Sue for Resources; Compensation Provided to Others
    21. New Immigration Plan Favors Business Over People
    22. Nanotechnology Offers Exciting Possibilities But Health Effects Need Scrutiny
    23. Plight of Palestinian Child Detainees Highlights Global Problem
    24. Ethiopian Indigenous Victims of Corporate and Government Resource Aspirations
    25. Homeland Security Was Designed to Fail
    Posted by at No comments:

    Links-09

    1. Liberals vs Conservatives? -- (Angry Bear [liberal])
    2. Internet users are better informed about political issues that non-users are. (Dee-Log)
    3. a) Transactional vs Transformational (Joe Trippi)
      • TransActional -- Tit for Tat
      • TransFormational -- Things will change

    4. Katrina Timeline (ThinkProgress)
    5. PBS PodCasts
    6. New Scientist Special Report on Evolution
    7. Oil for Food -- 1.7% graft (GadFly), and

    Posted by at No comments:

    9/05/2005

    ChangeThis

    16.01 Why Smart People Defend Bad Ideas
    • The problem with smart people is that they like to be right and sometimes will defend ideas to the death rather than admit they’re wrong.
    • Why smart people defend bad ideas -- By Scott Berkun, April 2005
    15.03 Let's Rewrite the Constitution to Deal With Organizations
    • Art Kleiner suggest that organizations are where all of the power lies today and it is about time to recognize that and leverage groups to solving problems. Think open source for government.
    Links
    • Terrorism, Security, and America's Purpose the New America Foundation will convene a major national policy forum to examine the challenge of international terrorism and how best to confront it. (Sept 6-7, 2005)
    =====
    Posted by at No comments:

    9/01/2005

    democratic

    1. Populist Economy -- e.g. run the economic system for the average and less well off rather than the wealthy.

    2. Individual morality -- e.g. permit the people and families to manage their own moreality rather than determining the socially acceptable morality by the government.



    Belief in the Common good in addition to the invisible hand of unregulated free enterprise.

    Democratic Leadership council "Play Book"
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    8/28/2005

    israel

    The "history" of israel can be shown thru maps, and associated written material. The two comments linked below are:
    1. History of Israel and Palestine in VERY Easy To Understand Maps: "There has never been a civilization or a nation referred to as "Palestine" and the very notion of a "Palestinian Arab nation" having ancient attachments to the Holy Land going back to time immemorial is one of the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated upon the world!"

    2. Lessons From the Swiss Cheese Map: "Why have Israeli-Palestinian peace talks ignored the importance of good mapmaking?"

    The first suggests that Greater Israel is a natural area for the Jewish nation and the second suggests that the breakup of the Oslo II peace talks may have been paritally caused by bad graphics that showed that Palestine area as "cantons" and thus unacceptable.
    Posted by at No comments:

    8/24/2005

    links-24

    Yet another set of links that have no organization, but that I want to save.
    • RSS Reader software , rss-specifications.com
    • Blog Navigator, RSS/Podcast
    • FeedDemon, RSS / Podcast reader ($30.00)
      • IPodder, the cross-platform podcast receiver
      • Ziepod is an easy-to-use toolkit to reach and manage audio-based content published through podcasts.
    • TouchGraph -- intersite link maps
    • Startup Organizer provide quick access to all of the programs that are automatically started when you turn on or log on to your computer
    • Hardware
    • Blinkx reads what you have on your computer screen and automatically links you to related information local and remote.
    Posted by at No comments:

    Florida

    A friend has pointed out the two columns by Krugman on the 2000 Florida recount, See Comment 1)

    This is a set of links to the various sites that might be useful in discussing this.

    Posted by at 1 comment:

    8/19/2005

    questions

    Roberts once wrote:
    the personal beliefs of judicial candidates do not matter because "their ideology should have no role in the decisional process," (News Hounds)

    Questions for Roberts
    1. Sen. Charles Schumer 20 , (Right Voices comment)
    2. Dallas Morning News 5
    3. People for the American Way 20, (from DailyKos)
    4. Reason 7

    Discussion of reasonable questions:
    1. WeMatter.com Which topics are appropriate: Criminality, Qualifications, Judical Style, Idology, Positions, Personality?
    2. Washington Post
    3. John Roberts's Judicial Temperament (Brad DeLong)
    4. Propriety of Asking Judge Roberts to Comment on Specific Past Supreme Court Rulings , Part 1 Part 2 (FindLaw's Writ, Vikram David Amar)
    5. Originalism and Unenumerated Rights by Armando (DalyKos)
    6. Reasons To Go On Living -- Does anyone believe in a "living Constitution" anymore? (Slate)
    7. The Politics of the SCOTUS Confirmation -- the public now thinks the Senate should consider a Supreme Court nominee's positions on issues in addition to his or her legal background (Daily Kos)
    Google search
    Posted by at No comments:

    8/08/2005

    pleadings

    U.S. Supreme Court Audio peadings and [case text] (of Roberts)
    From:
    Posted by at No comments:

    8/04/2005

    activist-

    Objective Criteria (resources)

    Still trying to get a set of OBJECTIVE definitions of Judicial decisions: It seems to me that any decision can be 1 of 8 outcomes based on which "side" won and which lost,
    1. Constitution WON, Federal law lost
    2. Constitution WON, State law lost
    3. Federal law WON, State law lost
    4. Constitution lost, Federal law WON
    5. Constitution lost, State law WON
    6. Federal law lost, State law WON
    7. Law WON, Individual lost (procedural)
    8. Law lost, Individual WON(procedural)
    DEMOCRATIC -- One way of classifying these is that 1,2, and 3 are Anti-Democratic, Dictatorial, in that the most local democratic law lost, 4,5 and 6 are Democratic in that the most local government won, and 7 and 8 are probably best not categorized in this way.

    FEDERALIST -- Another way to classify these is that 2,3 and 1? are Anti-Federalist, National, and 5, 6, and 4? are Federalist

    Previously discussed in Activist: Constitutionist , Simplicity , Corporate , Social control
    Level of "Discovery"

    Another topic is the level of discovery that it is "reasonable" to do with respect to a Supreme court appointment

    1. Criminality -- Is the Judge a criminal now, or has he been in the past?
    2. Qualifications -- Is the Judge educated enough, smart enough, experienced enough to serve? -- Note: There has been some disagreement as to whether a judge should be rejected if he is not highly qualified, e.g.: a) Not approved by the AMA, b) We need judged for the common man {TBD}
    3. Judicial Style -- How does the judge decide cases, Based on a Dead Constitution, a Living Constitution, or? based on a set of core moral principals?
    4. Moral leaning -- What is the morality of the judge, e.g. Conservative, Liberal, Religious, Atheist, Fundamentalist, Weak Christian, Jew, Moslem, etc? -- In general, there seems to be a conscientious that we do not admit to considering these, as well as those below, in the approval process, though if a judge seems to, or is suspected as likely to, generally decide according his leanings or positions, then it is probable that these will be explored and considered regardless of the profession to the contrary.
    5. Positions --How would a judge decide on specific "hot" button issues? -- Abortion, Disabled, Free Enterprise, Gay, Gender, Race, etc. Certainly there are people, groups, etc. that either feel strongly about certain issues or are willing to use these issues to further their addenda.
    • Personality and History. -- Is the Judge a nice person, do lots of other people like him, did he rise from the low class... -- This is either stated, in general by his supporters, or criticized as the "politics of personality" if it is negative. (Note: I am not sure where this should be in the aboee list)
    In general the people who feel that the Judge should be confirmed state that only the first few should be considered and were in the past, where as those who might oppose the Judge or the nominator tend to explore more of these levels.

    Also see: Judgments , Activist , Candidates ...



    Resources

    C-Span ^f"Roberts" (June 19, 1997, How the Supreme court works)
    Resources on the Web (SctNomination)

    Offical Supreme court site

    Oyaz site > podcasts > Roberts > [feedback]

    FindLaw Citation Search
      U.S. = e.g. 410 U.S. 113.
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