Law School Graduation Cartoon

In honor of law school graduations here at Loyola New Orleans and everywhere:


(This scan wasn't so good, so I cleaned up the caption; the name of the building is "Norton School of Law". I wish I had the full source information for this, but I don't have the issue date for this cartoon; I'm trying to find it, but its not a big priority.)
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Law and Sausage: Public Comments on Proposed Regulations

I had to look up an FCC report for a faculty member yesterday. The FCC search function is pretty worthless, but an advanced Google search with the restricted-domain option worked fine and I found the report, which is:

“Report on Broadcast Localism and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” (PDF Copy)

Its available here (search for “localism” - the release date is January 24, 2008), along with all 116,490 comments that have been submitted as part of the required public comment process (the list of comments are under the link for MB Docket 04-233).

Even though the time frame for the comment process - 30 days for initial comments and an addition 30 days for response comments, or something like that - expired a year ago, the comments keep coming in, probably because of the internet advocacy that both supporters and opponents of this issue set up (more on that later).

I haven’t had to work with the regulatory comment process recently, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised by how many comments there are on hot-button issues like one: radio “localism”, which opponents consider to be a stealth version of the fairness doctrine and which supporters consider to be, well, a stealth version of the fairness doctrine.

Both sides were well mobilized and just randomly sampling about 20 of the comments I found a handful of form letters/e-mails from each side. For example, the Christian broadcasting folks must have called their army out to deluge the FCC with multiple copies of the same canned response, this one from Maria McFadden of Rock Hill, S.C.:

(http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520195162)

That was sent by e-mail, I guess, but one that was, apparently, either submitted in print or faxed, from Susan Hollins of Slater, S.C. (there must have been a recent push on this issue in South Carolina) is:

(http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520201745)

The other side of the issue also had their form letters, all using the anti-media consolidation issue, like this one from Theresa DeLeon of Pecos, N.M.:

(http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520195117)

Sandra Hoffstram of Plymouth, M.N. sent the same identical message:

(http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520194629)

(You can search for these individual’s names on the FCC comment page I listed above).

When I say “identical” I mean just that - word for word, so I googled “rules are about bringing greater transparency” and found this auto-comment page from StopBigMedia.Com.

Some of the non-form letter messages are on this FCC comment page are, um, less than erudite:

(http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520199636)

However, there may be hope for the democratic process, as this one is a scan of an actually handwritten letter:

(http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520213967)

Actually, it’s a single, fourteen-page PDF scan of several letters, actually, some handwritten, some obviously typed on manual typewriters:

(http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520213967)

and a few which are scanned images of signed form letters. They are all from different parts of the country. Why were they grouped together as a singled document when every canned e-mail comment I found is its own “comment”? Hmmmm....

The e-mailed comments seem to greatly outweigh the actual written ones, and the proof in the pudding that no humans actually read the e-mailed comments is that several of the ones I found are spam, like this one from some sex site:

(http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520192299)

And this one from a torrent site:

(http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520196617)

and something that I don’t know what it is:

(http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520196276)

But for that one, the listed “attorney/author” name and the mailing address on that (search for "229" on the master list of comments) should be a dead giveaway:


Democracy in/action!!!

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Calvin and Hobbes and New Orleans

I’m re-reading some Calvin and Hobbes for a possible <*ahem*> research project and had forgotten this funny New Orleans reference (from GoComics.Com):




Heaven indeed!

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Who Leeches the Leechers?: Blog Vacuums

I have a few “google alert” searches set up, mainly to test that service. One search is for anything that links back to my blog here - and I got a result - the first result, I think - that led me to this page:

http://www.howdohowto.com/2009/05/caliorg-kidnapped-by-thai-pirates/

Which is an un-attributed cut-and-paste copy of a post I made in March. HowDoHowTo.Com is a web site that apparently does just that: vacuums up content from elsewhere and posts it on its own website with its own ads around it.

There is a notice on each page here with contact information that says:

Some articles in our site are from internet and for purpose of display only, all rights reserved by the authors. If any of these infinges your rights, please notice us ( mazystar#msn.com #=@) and we will delete it as soon as possible.
Powered by WordPress. Design by Jinxuan. © 2009 How How How !.

It basically admits what they’re doing and contemplates that people will want their stuff removed if it “infinges” [sic!] their rights. I’ll e-mail that person and do just that in a minute.

Their front page changes so much I couldn’t see what the google alert had found, but the link in the e-mail indicated it was the “Thai Pirates” post about CALI, which is funny since the original post was about some web site leeching the CALI web page and posting it more or less as their own. When I did a search for CALI at HowDoHowTo.Com I found several other posts, includuing this one, which I kept as a screen capture because of the abbreviated excerpt from the CALI web page and the banner ad that followed when I viewed it:


This new CALI mission statement warrants a session at this summer’s conference.

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Jazz Fest: Music, Food, and Tattoos

Besides the great music and food, Jazzfest is an amazing place for people-watching. There’s no shortage of interesting tattoos in this city, but I got pictures of three that were particularly notable.

Carpe Diem:


Great advice, but a strange choice of location to put this on your foot.

Cadillac Logo:


I hope he got paid for this.

And, my favorite, Bugs Bunny as da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man:



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