Skepticseye.com

AARGH

The Skeptic — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:37:16 +0000

DNC Files Suit Against McCain

The Skeptic — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:11:56 +0000

But that was no 120 days just now. And if they get the court to order the FEC to take action, doesn’t that restart the 120-day clock?

You see, under the statute, if a party files an FEC complaint, and the FEC doesn’t take action, in 120 days the party can prosecute the complaint directly in federal court. These suits, called “a8″ suits, don’t work if the FEC has taken action at all - even to just start the wheels of an investigation moving.

So I’m not sure why the DNC is rushing the procedure like this. Wouldn’t it be better to wait the 120 days out, and file on the merits during . . . gee I don’t know . . . the Republican Convention?

People’s Park

The Skeptic — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:15:32 +0000

People’s Park in Berkeley - has rules. Posted. Several places. I have photos.
Meanwhile I was able to enjoy this as a guest of the Institute of Governmental Studies at Berkeley. They dialed up nice weather, great panelists, and a memorable occasion.

A Reason To Love Facebook

The Skeptic — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:06:16 +0000

Because you read things like this:

Friedrich A. Hayek and Alexis De Tocqueville are now friends with Bridgett Wagner.

Of course they are.

Another One Gone

The Skeptic — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:31:24 +0000

Now Charlton Heston has passed away. (”Civil rights leader?“)

I have a picture in my mind of Herb Alexander and Heston in line, waiting to be checked into the afterlife. I’ll bet they get along.

Bye, Herb.

The Skeptic — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:00:56 +0000

Brilliant, grumpy campaign finance czar Herb Alexander has departed this life. The Post and the NYT both featured very thoughtful obits. John Samples offers thoughts here. USC’s In Memoriam is here, with a great photo. CCP’s thoughts are here.
I first met Herb as one of the counsel for the Thompson Investigation - the staff called me one day to say there was “this guy” in the office that wanted to talk to someone about offering testimony when the time came. I figured it was, you know, just a “guy” and then Herb Alexander walked into my teeny little office. We had a blast talking about how much fun it was to do state-level campaign finance research on the Internet. And grumping about some of the more outlandish reforms being bounced around the Hill at that time.

The last time I had the pleasure of talking with him was at a Cato campaign finance conference in, I believe, 2006. He was frail and accompanied by a nurse, but generally in feisty spirits with lots to say about everybody there. (Heh).

Here’s a link to Alexander’s Frontline Interview from pre-BCRA, just for fun. I hope someone sat down with him to take an oral history.

My Bundling Paper is Up

The Skeptic — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:26:55 +0000

My paper for The Forum, on why we might not want to require bundling disclosure, is up and available here.

Commending to Your Attention - The CJR?

The Skeptic — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:55:31 +0000

Why, yes. The CJR’s “campaign desk” blog is interesting, especially the last couple of posts by Zackary Roth.

WTF? #$&@$!!

The Skeptic — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:31:38 +0000

You are no doubt dying to know why this site has been displaying in un-themed HTML and now has only the most basic of characteristics.

Well, someone (a vandal) replaced part of my theme/presentation code with spam. This knocked everything out of whack. And as I am incompetent, I must rely upon one of America’s great young political and policy talents and his very limited free time to address these problems.

You can read it. That’s what counts. We’ll work on getting the neat “eye from the dollar bill” header back, as well as some of the cute features of the old design. But it may be a bit.

CFIF Opposes Disclosure for Issue Ads in West VA

The Skeptic — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:25:54 +0000

And has had a pretty good track record on this issue - see the links at their site, here.