The Interocitor

The Klan, Then and Now

NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST	ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWI

It's interesting to note that the post-Civil-War Democrat Party was adamant about withdrawing US troops from the former Confederacy, incidentally allowing General Forrest's Klan to repress the freed slaves for a hundred years.

Why do they expect it to be different this time? Or do they care this time, either?

AMD sues Intel

Long expected by many in the computer chip business, Advanced Micro Devices has filed an anti-trust suit against Intel, alleging monopoly maintenence -- the same charges that Microsoft faced a few years ago.

Intel controls about 80% of all microprocessor sales, despite having had a poor desktop product for the last several years. AMD alleges that Intel paid customers subsidies and rebates if they bought no more than a set number of AMD products. Companies that purchase no AMD products, like Dell, get the largest discounts.

In past years, Intel has attributed its sucess to its superior product, which has brought them to near-monopoly status. However, over the past 5 years, AMD has caught and passed Intel in every area except laptops, yet asserts their market share remains controlled by Intel's vendor contracts and periodic price wars.

The complaint, filed in Federal District Court in Delaware, asserts that Intel illegally used its size and market power to prevent its customers from also doing business with A.M.D., which competes with Intel in selling the x86 microprocessors that operate personal computers.

For instance, A.M.D. said, Intel withheld discounts from companies that bought more than approved quantities of processors from A.M.D.; paid for exclusive contracts; and warned its customers not to attend A.M.D. product launchings. A.M.D., based in Sunnyvale, Calif., named 38 companies, including Dell, Fujitsu, Compaq and Best Buy, as victims of such tactics.

"For most competitive situations, this is just business, but from a monopolist, this is illegal," Hector Ruiz, A.M.D.'s chairman, president and chief executive, wrote on the company's Web site, amd.com. "Earned success is one thing. Illegal maintenance of a monopoly is quite another."

About frigging time. Except for laptop processors, Intel has been chasing after AMD on a technical basis, while making it incrementally too costly for any company to buy more than token numbers of AMD parts. Microsoft beat Netscape with a better browser as much as market power -- Intel's using monopoly power to keep better designs off the market. Big difference, and I hope they pay. AMD has been the only innovator in processors for the last 5 years, and should be able to market their designs freely without a $300 billion dollar company's thumb on the scales.

"Grokster" and online file transfer

David Post has an excellent analysis of the Grokster decision over at Volokh. From what he suggests, Grokster, Moebius and Kazaa are all going down, as there is little to recommend them other than copyright infringement. However, there are a range of file transfer systems, and it's not entirely clear how they fall out.

Case 1: FTP -- File Transfer Protocol. Clearly FTP can be (and has been) used for transferring illegal files. But it was designed simply to allow basic file transfer over the Internet -- web site posting generally uses FTP -- and has never been marketed for any illegal purpose. Status: unaffected.

Case 2: Torrent. This is a tool which is useful only for sending large, well-distributed files. While much of the use has been video (audio files are too small), and particularly television shows and porn, it is also the method of choice for transmitting Linux distributions and other large public domain files. There is substantial utility and non-infringing use here. Status: the dividing line?

Case 3: eMule. This is a cross between torrents and Grokster, involving links of private networks hosting various files. Since nearly all content on eMule networks is copyrighted, this looks like it goes the same way as Grokster, with the possible exception of "intent" issues. Status: probable loser.

One question that hasn't been asked: Is the lack of non-infringing content simply a matter of choice, or is it a fallout of 95-year copyright terms? How much audio and video is there in the world not under copyright? If a service has a higher than-random percentage of non-infringing work, is it OK? If not, what is the criterion? Just asking.

Lileks Screed

Apparently, James Lileks has decided to separate his more screedish posts from his long-running "Bleat" in favor of a stand-alone Sceedblog. Well worth reading. Example:

... you’re free to think that people who believe B, G and T also must believe A through Z, and both sorts are equally malevolent - just as you’re free to believe that the Mossad and the CIA brought down the Twin Towers, the Pentagon was actually hit by a magically vanishing giant banana, and Roswell aliens gave us the technology to remotely pilot the planes. I can only imagine your fury and disaffection from the world as it is generally assumed to be, and you have my sympathy.

"Blight" and Kelo

Even in California, which limits Kelo-style eminent domain actions to "blighted areas", what constitutes blight is often what the government says. And often, it can be created where no blight exists, if the government is willing to spend some time creating it.

Case in point in Los Angeles: For over 20 years, the City of Los Angeles wanted to widen Overland Avenue between Palms and Venice Blvds from one lane each way to two-plus-centerlane. They had a 20-foot easement on property on both sides of the street. But the city didn't want to pay for the land. So, they began refusing any and all permits on the Overland properties unless the owners ceded the easement to the city -- almost 20% of each lot. This went on for 20 years. The only thing the city would allow was a zoning downgrade to light commerical.

In those 20 years, the properties went from single-family houses to crappy commerical conversions, with their values plumetting (or failing to rise with the red-hot West LA market). At the end it was 3rd rate auto body shops, futon sales, used car lots and at least one momentary crack house. A mini-mall and McDonald's were allowed, once they ceded the easement. By the time the city actually wdened the road, using eminent domain, the "just compensation" for the property was a fraction of its original value. This is apparently not unique.

More on Kelo

There's a mindset behind Kelo, which probably explains the ideological rift on the Supreme Court. This quote from an AP story on Kelo:

Municipal and development officials say they're being unfairly cast as greedy land grabbers. Taking property isn't pleasant, they say, but sometimes it is the only way to spur development in cities struggling to pay bills.

"The only way we can stay alive is to grow and revitalize," said Richard Monteilh, city administrator in Newark, N.J.

You see, the problem is that they've shut down normal private development with committees, commissions, lawsuits, micro-zoning, conditional use permits, environmental imapct reports, wetlands regulations and other forms of red tape. Increasingly, only the government-connected can afford to develop, as the uncertainty of the process drives the risk up for everyone else.

One wonders how this country ever got built without the participation of local government in its construction.

Better no obit at all

Shana Alexander died. Most people don't remember that she had a brief gig on 60 Minutes ages ago, in a segment called "Point-Counterpoint", where she and co-star James Kilpatrick debated an issue of the day in Crossfire format.

Her real claim to fame after a lifetime as a reporter and writer? From the obituary:

"Point-Counterpart" was so popular it was frequently parodied in a "Saturday Night Live" skit. Jane Curtin played the liberal Alexander role and Dan Aykroyd, in the Kilpatrick role, began his remarks with the line, "Jane, you ignorant slut."

Iranian Puppet Government Removed

The sham of a "reformist" Iranian govenment has finally fallen. The zealots who control everything anyway now have the public posts as well. Some will view this as a set-back. I don't. Finally the Iranian people -- most of whom were born after the revolution -- are going to get to choose: the 14th century or the 21st.

It looks like the last gasp of the mullahs from over here.

Sacrificed to Best Buy

James Lileks has a photo spread on a Minneapolis suburb awaiting death so that Best Buy's new headquaters can be built.

This is the real meaning of Kelo

That Funny Constitution

This term, the Court has bent, folded, spindled and mutilated the 1st (political speech), 4th (various), 5th (Kelo), 8th (death penalty) and 10th (Raich) Amendments, deferring to legislatures and bureaucrats wherever possible.

Only the Abortion Amendment stands absolute.

Justice Kennedy Screws Up (Again)

In Kelo v City of New London, a case that attempted to limit eminent domain seizures to those for public purposes, the court's liberal bloc, joined by Justice Kennedy, ruled 5-4 that eminent domain can be used for any purpose that provides any indirect benefit to the public, even if the direct beneficiary is a private party.

So, if the city thinks that expanding the GM factory parking lot will enhance city revenue, they can take your home or business and give the land to GM. Expect to see more of this, along with seizures of church and other tax-exempt property, given that changing status from tax-exempt to taxable is of clear benefit to city coffers.

Novel uses for this new power:

• racial integration -- seize every 10th house in a neighborhood and sell it at a discount to underrepresented minorities.
• Wal-Mart removal -- got an annoying business competitor? Make a claim that everyone would be better off without them, and use city money to get rid of them.
• Individual removals -- there are probably people your town could do without, such as that city council gadfly. Buy his house and move him out!

These might be a bit fanciful, but I'll bet you that something like this brings the case back to the Court, when it's hopefully reversed. Consider that Justice O'Connor dissented on principle here. If she can find princple on an issue, god knows others can.

Kelo was brought by the Institute for Justice, which can always use your help.

UPDATE: According to Justice Stevens: "It is not for the courts to oversee the choice of the boundary line nor to sit in review on the size of a particular project area." Why not? The courts do this here in Los Angeles on nearly every commerical development. Does the participation of a government entity preclude judicial review of commerical projects? If so, this is going to get a lot more popular among developers....

UPDATE 2: Lots of reaction, all linked at Arguing with Signposts

UPDATE 3: I wonder if, in California, a county could start condemning Prop-13 advantaged properties and then resell them at market, with the "public purpose" of increasing their taxable value. Just a thought.

There is no 'H' in 'Trillion'

The New York Times suggests that private enterprise in space is about thrills, or as their headline says, "thrillions." As Douglas Adams pointed out, "Space is big.....vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big." Big enough for trillions and trillions of opportunities, all of which I expect the NY Times to miss.

The Other Court Vacancy, Part 3

Other views:

• Eric Hogue has an interesting take over at Crosswalk.com (scroll down)

  Add to this fact that Judge Brown was a minority conservative judiciary 'leader' for California, no matter who the governor picks, the replacement will be a step or two to the center of Janice Rogers Brown.

• Hack n Flack has a few candidates as well


• Bob Egelko has an excellent article on Schwarzenegger's likely choices and what's ahead for the CA court

  If she follows past practice, Brown will remain at the state court to finish work on cases already argued, so her seat won't be vacant until September, when hearings resume after a two-month break.
  
  Her successor will join a court with awaiting hearings on important issues already on the docket. Among them are tobacco company liability for ads directed at teenagers, Indian tribes' claim of immunity from state campaign disclosure laws, the retroactivity of a ballot measure that protects businesses from some consumer lawsuits, and a clash between free speech and sexual harassment laws in a suit by a former employee of the "Friends'' television show. The court may also decide to consider a challenge to California's new domestic partner law.
  
  But the blockbuster case on the horizon is a suit by gay and lesbian couples and the city of San Francisco over the state's ban on same-sex marriage. An appeal of the March 14 ruling by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer, declaring the ban in violation of the state Constitution, is headed for the state's high court sometime next year, unless a ballot measure that would overturn the ruling wins voter approval first.
  
  Schwarzenegger's nominee, if confirmed by the state Commission on Judicial Appointments, would have some impact on the court's ideological makeup. As UC Berkeley Law Professor Stephen Barnett observed, "Since Brown has been at the right wing of the court, almost any appointee would move the court toward the center.''

The Other Court Vacancy, Part 2

This was probably predictable, but I didn't see it: Is Brown's seat a "black seat" to be filled by a person of appropriate color? AP's David Kravets seems to think so, and lists several possible African-American candidates for the CA Supreme Court:

Among the leading contenders, according to court watchers, is Vance Raye, a black member of the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento who has been a friend of Brown's for nearly three decades.

Raye, a Republican, voted in April to uphold California's domestic partner law, which grants gays and lesbians virtually the same rights as California married couples....

Other potential black candidates include U.S. District Judge Saundra Armstrong, a Republican sitting in Oakland; Candace Cooper, a Democrat on the Los Angeles-based 2nd District Court of Appeal and U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall, a Democrat sitting in Los Angeles.

One would at least hope for a Republican. Does Eloise Anderson have a law degree? Sadly not.

The Other Court Vacancy, Part I

With all eyes focused on the presumptive vacancy on the US Supreme Court, few are watching the California Supreme Court vacancy that Arnold has to fill. Too bad, since in many cases the CA Supreme's view is final. Califiornia Insider is one of those watching, of course, and here is Daniel Weintraub's pick.

Note: Dan Weintrab is a featured speaker at the upcoming Bear Flag League Summer Conference, July 17 at CalTech (Pasadena, CA).

Thought Experiment

Peggy Noonan offers a thought experiment: What if George Bush ripped into Democrats the way Hillary and Howard Dean rip into Republicans. Synthesizing a Bush speech from recent quotes from those two Democrat notables, Noonan wonders what the likely reaction would be to this:

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I want to speak this evening about how I see the political landscape. Let me jump right in. The struggle between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party is a struggle between good and evil--and we're the good. I hate Democrats. Let's face it, they have never made an honest living in their lives. Who are they, really, but people who are intent on abusing power, destroying the United States Senate and undermining our Constitution? They have no shame.

But why would they? They have never been acquainted with the truth. You ever been to a Democratic fundraiser? They all look the same. They all behave the same. They have a dictatorship, and suffer from zeal so extreme they think they have a direct line to heaven. But what would you expect when you have a far left extremist base? We cannot afford more of their leadership. I call on you to help me defeat them!"

As Peggy points out, Republicans are neither this mean or stupid until you get to the fringes. Perhaps it's the same with the Democrats, but what does that say about Hillary or Dean?

So, where was Jeffords?

Senator Jim Jeffords(R I, VT) has been missing a lot of important votes lately. What's up with this? One explanation is that he's spending more time with his wife, who is undergoing cancer treatment. This was the ostensible reason Jeffords decided not to run for re-election in 2006. But there may be another one (courtesy of the Dwinell Report):

So many people have written and talked to us about personal encounters with Senator Jeffords. All assume that his behavior is caused by Alzheimer's disease. Some of the reports leave one's head shaking wondering how Vermont's press corps could not report to Vermont's citizens his deteriorating condition. Some say that it is out of respect to Jeffords. Yet what about respect for the citizen. Most do not follow politics as closely as our readers. There is a need to know, and a need to be fair.

That was published in April. Still no answer, as far a I know, although Jeffords has admitted to treatment for ailments related to his age (71).

CA Supreme Court Opening

Justice Brown's confirmation opens up a seat on the California Supreme Court -- Schwarzenegger's first appointment. Can he find someone who can fill Janice Rogers Brown's shoes? Can he get her or him confirmed by the radical-left State Senate? Upcoming....

Janice Rogers Brown Confirmed

FINALLY!

Janice Rogers Brown has been confirmed for the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. The vote was 56-43, with Ben Nelson (D-NE) as the only Democrat voting Yea. Jim Jeffords ("I"-VT) did not vote.

Debate on William H Pryor was ended by a 67-32 cloture vote. Jeffords missed this one, too.

Not Hydrogen -- Ammonia!

One of the real problems with the supposed transition to a Hydrogen Economy -- much beloved by technologists like myself -- is the issue of hydrogen storage. It's quite hard and we have no good way to store acceptable amounts of hydrogen in vehicles, nor do we have a good line on how to do it in the future. A good discussion of this can be found in last year's Physics Today article The Hydrogen Economy.

At least up to now. A recent letter to Physics Today, by Sandia National Laboratory scientist Peter J. Feibelman, offers a surprisingly easy path to hydrogen storage: store it as ammonia:

In their article "The Hydrogen Economy", George Crabtree, Mildred Dresselhaus, and Michelle Buchanan say that "basic research must provide breakthroughs . . . to make a hydrogen-based energy system . . . vibrant and competitive." This statement overlooks the near-term feasibility of an ammonia-mediated hydrogen-based system....

Because ammonia forms hydrogen bonds, unlike H2 or methane, it liquefies at about 8 atmospheres and room temperature, or ambient pressure and –33 °C. Indeed, because of this favorably situated phase transition, anhydrous ammonia was used as a household refrigerant for much of the 20th century.

Pipelines are in place to distribute anhydrous ammonia. To fertilize their fields, farmers routinely pull tank trucks up to ammonia "filling stations." An ammonia-fueled automobile with an internal-combustion engine was reported in the 1970s. Commercial catalytic cells are available to break ammonia into nitrogen and hydrogen and thus produce feedstock for a hydrogen fuel cell. Solid-electrolyte ammonia fuel cells have been demonstrated....

Unlike CH4 and CO2, ammonia is not a greenhouse gas. In the atmosphere, it quickly forms hydrogen bonds to water vapor and returns to the ground in alkaline rain. However, NH3 is toxic, chills its surroundings rapidly on vaporizing, and releases heat on contact with water. Engineering a safe fuel tank for an ammonia-fueled vehicle would be a key priority.

Ammonia is an excellent material for hydrogen storage. As Crabtree and coauthors report in their figure 4, the volume density of hydrogen in liquid NH3 is more than 40% greater than in liquid H2, and the comparison becomes much more favorable when one considers the weight of the required fuel tank and peripherals....

The original authors respond (scroll down in the link above) by observing:

The use of ammonia in a hydrogen economy has been discussed since at least the 1970s; Ali T-Raissi summarizes its history and its possibilities. The subject remains vibrant today; new mechanisms for the release of hydrogen from ammonia over catalysts at acceptable temperatures are continuing topics of research. A major challenge is toxicity, as Feibelman points out, but all hydrogen storage proposals come with safety issues.

Ammonia can be used effectively in other hydrogen storage media as well, notably in combination with its borane analog, BH3. NH3BH3 releases more than 12% of its mass as H2 in decomposing to NHBH at low temperature and ambient pressure. Its release rate and decomposition chemistry can be significantly improved by nanoscale structuring in porous hosts. This example shows how the richness of hydrogen chemistry and the influence of nano-patterning lead to new horizons in hydrogen storage.

The original article and these responses are must reading for anyone who intends to participate in the debate on where to go after gasoline. RTWT.