The Exercise of Vital Powers

A federal trial court in Chicago has ruled recently that the ancient legal doctrine of trespass to chattels (meaning trespass to personal property) applies to the interference caused to home computers by spyware. Information technology has advanced at warp speed with the law struggling to keep up, and this is an example of a court needing to use historical legal theories to grapple with new and previously unforeseen contexts in Cyberspace.

In Sotelo v. DirectRevenue, the plaintiff filed a complaint against various defendants alleging that, without his consent, the defendants caused spyware to be downloaded onto his computer. In a nutshell, the plaintiff alleged that the spyware tracked his Internet use, invaded his privacy, and caused damage to his computer.

(link)

I’ve often explained to politicos and anarco-libertarians that spammers illegally trespass when they connect to a mail server and dump hundreds of thousands of unwanted messages, using up bandwidth and disk space. Its the reason I applaud the Georgia Gen. Assembly for passing the Slam Spam act last session.

Its nice to see a judge apply common sense to technology. I would much rather apply well tested legal principles to new technologies than rely on statutory solutions. The DMCA is a prime example of what can go wrong when a special interest driven legislature gets involved.

I was expecting to be disappointed by the recommendations from the President’s Tax Reform Panel, but what is leaking out so far is even worse than I expected.

It seems clear that meaningful tax reform is not going to happen with this administration. Significant tax reform will require a bold leader with a concrete plan, not political coward. This is the time for 2008 Presidential nominee hopefuls to break with the administration over fiscal policy. As I pointed out earlier John McCain is beginning to make his moves, and Newt Gingrich is spending more time in Iowa and New Hampshire than he is in Georgia these days.

The problem is legislators don’t win the White House. Governors (and VPs) have won the presidency since JFK was elected 45 years ago. We need a GOP Governor to step away from the pack and take the President and Congress to task for its irresponsible actions over the past 6 years.

“We are keeping quiet. And hiding from the media,” wrote Abigail Thernstrom, the Bush-designated vice chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and a prominent critic of affirmative-action policies, in an e-mail copied to other members of the network. “As for undermining trust in the president, I am afraid he has accomplished that all on his own without any help from us.”

Ouch!

Shamlessly copied from Radley Balko who seems to have more time to scour the web than I do.

Also, the RNC had a call today to reassure bloggers on the Miers nomination. First, glad to see the RNC has clued into the internet. Second it doesn’t look like it worked:
Erick Erickson’s take
Prof. Bainbridge’s take

Finally, this book looks to be interesting.

Two of the biggest complaints from the Originalists and Strict Constructionists about Miers is that she has no judicial track record and she never had to defend her views in the face of public opposition. History has shown that conservative Justices with this background tend to move left after being appointed to the high court (see a good write up of that here).

I’m wondering why anyone is suprised at this nomination. Its pretty clear that Bush himself has moved to the left after his election to high office. He has yet to make any serious efforts to accomplish anything that either the social conservative or fiscal conservative base elected him to do.

Bush has nominated someone very much like himself. Nice guy with not much track record or experience defending his beliefs against opponents.

I really would not want to be a Republican running in a tight race for Congress next year.

PDF is here
Credit to: Patrick Semmens

From Chris Roach (link):

Bush has screwed up everything that compelled me to vote for him: national security, fiscal discipline, judicial appointments, reduced regulation, and governmental competence. His one minor achievement has been not to degrade the Oval Office by cavorting with interns. But he has now done something that is more corrupting to the office and the country’s political culture: a pattern of hiring unqualified people that objective observers can detect are mere cronies. At least Clinton didn’t reward Monica Lewinsky with a high office. Bush is disturbingly willing to reward those who suck up to him with important government jobs, and it is a small consolation that they don’t literally suck him off.

I suspect Clinton was involved in just as much Cronyism - he just didn’t get caught with his pants down like Bush did with Michael Brown.

On October 17th, 2005 Poverty will be officially over. Through expert use of Commemorative Stones, a Dedication of flowers, and the Children of the Tapori Movement, the UN will have eradicated Poverty on International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

In the meantime, evil rich (yes I know thats an oxymoron) American (damn another one) Corporations (again!) will continue outsourcing jobs to the developing world and actually doing something to raise the per capita income of many of these nations.

HT: The Agitator

Ann Coulter is spot on the money for once:

Unfortunately for Bush, he could nominate his Scottish terrier Barney, and some conservatives would rush to defend him, claiming to be in possession of secret information convincing them that the pooch is a true conservative and listing Barney’s many virtues – loyalty, courage, never jumps on the furniture …

Talk about biting off more than you can chew.

Python explodes trying to eat an alligator

Mr. President,

You want us to trust you that Harriet Miers will make a good Associate Justice of the Supreme Court? I’m sorry Mr. President, you’ve lost my trust.

• I trusted you to win the peace in Iraq, but you failed to supply enough troops to do the job.
• I trusted you to reduce the size of the deficit, but you’ve sat watch over the largest budget increase since LBJ.
• I trusted you when you wanted to reorganize the federal government to better respond to terrorists and disasters, but the Dept of Homeland Security failed miserably and actively hindered private efforts in responding to Katrina.
• I trusted you to be a good steward of our Constitution, but you’ve detained American Citizens without trial or habeas corpus, signed a campaign finance bill you said was unconstitutional, pushed for and signed laws that eviscerate the 4th Amendment, and prosecuted cases which have make a mockery of states rights.
• I trusted you to veto pork-ridden spending bills, but you haven’t.
• I trusted you to use our Law Enforcement wisely to protect the citizenry, but you’ve decided porn is more dangerous than terrorists.
• I trusted you to further the GOP revolution of 1994, but instead of abolishing the Dept of Education - you’ve expanded it.
• I trusted you to not expand the welfare state, but you not only signed, but actively pushed, the Prescription Drug benefit.
• I trusted you to execute the Doctrine of Preemption - something I support wholeheartedly, but you failed to make the grand strategic case, relying on WMDs and “Saddam is a bad man” as your arguments for war.
• Finally, I trusted you to put good, qualified people in charge of vital government agencies, and guess what? You failed us again.

Mr. President, I fear your legacy will be creating the conditions that elected President Hillary Clinton. As the leader of your party your actions define that party. You have successfully defined the party of Reagan and Goldwater as a party of fiscal irresponsibility, cronyism, bungled military operations and big government. If I had wanted that I’d have voted for another Kennedy.

You and the Republican controlled congress have alienated the fiscal conservatives in favor of appealing to the left-wing voters of this nation. Perhaps Karl Rove didn’t mention this to you, but the left hates you. You could institute the revolution of Karl Marx and the left will hate you. Stop trying to buy their love with my tax dollars and dance with the people who brought you to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

update: Turns out George Will agrees