Eclectic Views

    
News bitlets gathered from hither and yon.
  

    
<http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=443248>

Mobiles 'make you senile'

>>>Mobile phones and the new wireless technology could cause a "whole
generation" of today's teenagers to go senile in the prime of their
lives, new research suggests

The study - which warns specifically against "the intense use of
mobile phones by youngsters" - comes as research on their health
effects is being scaled down, due to industry pressure. ... The study
... breaks new ground by looking at how low levels of microwaves cause
proteins to leak across the blood-brain barrier. ... hundreds of cancer
studies have been inconclusive.  As a result, the US mobile phone
industry has succeeded in cutting research into the health effects, and
the World Health Organisation is unlikely to continue its studies. ...
<<<
  

    
a little out of date, and actually a parody, but a cute one:
 the Baptist Creation Science Fair, 2001

http://objective.jesussave.us/creationsciencefair.html
  

    
So will the California recall be a Supreme Court debacle?

http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2003/09/15/recall/

> In what was the last of about a dozen legal challenges to the attempt to
>unseat Gov. Gray Davis, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
>Appeals said Monday it is unacceptable that six counties would be using
>outdated punch-card ballots, the type that sparked the "hanging chads"
>litigation in Florida during the 2000 presidential election.

...
>The court stayed imposition of its decision for a week to allow time for
>appeals to the Supreme Court.
  

    
Oy, oy, oy!

There's the key issue, then there's a subtler one.

As to the prominent issue, I predict the Supremes will give the
election the go-ahead within the allotted grace period, making the
9th's decision an historic footnote at most.

The slow-cooking story is the independent, nearly rogue nature of the
9th and its decisions. This is yet another one that's going to leave
other courts (and lots of politicos)  spluttering. It's going to be
interesting to follow the efforts to rein in the 9th, as judges move
on, new ones are nominated, etc. That court is a guaranteed target for
"reform".
  

    
Yes indeed.
  

    
The Supreme Court interfere with an election?  Oh surely not..

Actually they may be a bit tender on that subject after Gore v. Bush, and
since they are now deliberating over whether to strike down the McCain-
Feingold campaign finance law.
  

    

The three judges of the 9th cited the SCOTUS decision selecting Bush as
part of their justification. 
  

    <scribbled by coiro Tue 16 Sep 03 08:52>
  

    
> the 9th cited the SCOTUS decision selecting Bush

This should be interesting.  As I recall, there was some text in the Bush
decision saying explicitly that it should not be relied on as precedent in
any future case, but was limited solely to the facts of that one.  Many saw
that as a sign of concern their decision would come back to bite them.
Chomp!
  

    
(scribbled my earlier effort to post this, to which ronks replied)

reposting with <roger>'s permission, from the Media conf:

>>media 2136: Media Coverage of the Gov. Gray Davis Recall
(California)
#1115 of 1168: can't ruminate too long on cows (roger) Mon 15 Sep 2003
(11:40 AM)

Blogger Rick Hasen <http://electionlaw.blogspot.com/> filed a brief 
supporting the ACLU in this case and he promises his analysis on the 
decision "soon."

...  I was amused to see so many references to Bush v. Gore in  the
decision. I'm no attorney and I skimmed the decision. What I think I 
see here is a big loud, political "fuck you" from the 9th Circuit to
the  Supremes. The decision, as I read it, in effect flips the Bush v.
Gore  logic back onto the Supremes, daring the Supremes to reverse. In
one  reference, they note th Bush v. Gore language holding that federal
law  trumps state law when in comes to equal protection. So the 9th
Circuit  used the same equal protection analysis to overrule
California's Secretary  of State. It seems to me like an overt
challenge to the Supremes: get out of this issue or prove your as
partisan and intellectually bankrupt as you  showed yoruself to be in
Bush v. Gore.

My hunch is the Supremes will duck this one.<<
  

    
If this stands, I think it will take a huge amount of gas out of the
recall effort. More pressure on Arnold to speak in specifics; more time
between Bustamante's take from the casinos and the actual vote; more
pressure on McClintock to drop out. And above all, decreased attention
from the public.
  

    
A caller on the radio this morning said that when he heard the
court ruling postponing the recall election it felt like being 
told of a postponement of his root canal.
  

    

Sounds about right.
  

    
What happens to absentee ballots? Stored somewhere until the election? 
Counted now? 
  

    
At least one Northern Cal county has advised its voters to continue
voting absentee. They'll go on with business as usual until it's
absolutely clear there's a delay.

The whole Ninth is going to review this now:

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said on
Tuesday that it would reconsider a controversial decision by a
three-judge panel of the court to postpone the Oct. 7 California recall
election.

The appeals court said that a fuller group of judges than the
three-judge panel that ruled on the case on Monday would rehear it.<<

The rest of the article is recap.

Am I correct in recalling that the whole court has reversed an
important panel decision in the recent past? What's the record with
that?
  

    
L. Dennis Kozlowski, who headed Tyco International before his fall from
grace, was quite thrifty with his own money, of which he had a great deal.
When he purchased paintings from a NYC gallery to hang in his Manhattan
townhouse, he evaded state and local sales taxes by saying they were for an
out-of-state residence, and even had empty crates shipped there to enhance
the fiction. With his company's money he appears to have been less cautious;
lawyers at his criminal trial on charges of looting Tyco of $600 million
have asked certain evidence to be sealed and kept from the jury lest they
think him a spendthrift.  The evidence is videotapes of his wife's 40th
birthday party; held at the Hotel Cala di Volpe in Sardinia, Tyco paid $2.1
million on (among other things) "an ice sculpture of Michelangelo's David
with vodka streaming from its penis into crystal glasses" and "an exploding
birthday cake with a replica of a woman's breasts on top".
  

    
I wish I was classy.
  

    
$2.1 million for a *replica* of _david_??

geez, if michaelangelo were alive today, he'd turn over in his grave.

so to speak.
  

    
Overheard at Mrs. Kozlowski's 40th birthday bash:

"This champagne tastes like piss."
  

    
Damn!!!

Federal judge in Oklahoma rules against Federal Trade Commission
do-not-call registry
<http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/a/2003/09/24/national1217EDT0587.DTL>


A federal judge has ruled that the Federal Trade Commission
overstepped its authority in creating the national "do-not-call" list
against telemarketers.

The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by telemarketers who challenged
the list of 50 million people who submitted their telephone numbers and
said they do not want to receive business solicitation calls.

The immediate impact of Tuesday's ruling U.S. District Judge Lee R.
West was not clear. He did not issue an order directing an action by
the FTC. 
  

    

Oh no.

So can congress give them that authority, or would it take a constitutional
ammendment?
  

    
The article doesn't give a clue as to what the grounds were for tossing the
list. Is there a First Amendment right to call someone up?
  

    
More that the FTC didn't have the authority to put such a list in place,
sounds like.
  

    
Funny you should mention the First Amendment issue, Eric:

Judge Blocks Do Not Call List, Take Two

<http://www.trib.com/AP/wire_detail.php?wire_num=232516>

This time around, the judge cited the telemarketers' free speech
rights.

Meanwhile, internet-fueled justice (?) is being meted out to the first
judge:

Judge who backed telemarketers is deluged
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- U.S. District Judge Lee R. West's telephone has
not stopped ringing since he sided with telemarketers seeking to block
a popular national do-not-call list.

Egged on by talk show hosts and angry Web sites, people have flooded
West's office and home with calls and faxes, apparently trying to show
him why they wanted to ban unsolicited sales calls.

More at:
<http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=Do%20Not%20Call%20Judge>
  

    

Of course I would never advocate this, but it would be poetic justice if
the spammers that are targeting the anti-spammers with DOS attacks were
the recipients of same.