Re: A Simple But Mysterious Bleg

1

Apo will kill you if you become a Dukie.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 11-29-07 10:31 PM
horizontal rule
2

This is obviously in furtherance of some scheme of stalking.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 11-29-07 10:32 PM
horizontal rule
3

I have no such affiliations. Would you settle for exfoliations?


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 11-29-07 11:01 PM
horizontal rule
4

*scrub scrub*


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 11-29-07 11:02 PM
horizontal rule
5

Not as a response to this request, but more generally, sure.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 11-29-07 11:03 PM
horizontal rule
6

Exfoliation is when you unfold the pages of a book.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 11-29-07 11:03 PM
horizontal rule
7

If you remove them entirely, that's deliberation.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 11-29-07 11:05 PM
horizontal rule
8

If those pages are cotton, fabrication.


Posted by: Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 11-29-07 11:48 PM
horizontal rule
9

If you just toss the damn thing in the over with the other heresies, that's fornication.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 11-29-07 11:49 PM
horizontal rule
10

over s/b oven dammit.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 11-29-07 11:50 PM
horizontal rule
11

If you redact words in a book as someone speaks them aloud to you, that's abdication.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 11-29-07 11:54 PM
horizontal rule
12

If you layer the pages in a tile-like fashion, it's imbrication.


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 11-29-07 11:58 PM
horizontal rule
13

And if you are finally out of that dump of an airport and can now go to bed, it's aviation.


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 11-29-07 11:59 PM
horizontal rule
14

If the pages are assembled in an elaborate or imposing manner, that's edification.


Posted by: Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:03 AM
horizontal rule
15

No, an aviation is gin, lemon juice, and maraschino (or, classically, creme de violette).


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:05 AM
horizontal rule
16

If the pages are promiscuously humping one another on your bookshelf, it's veneration.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:06 AM
horizontal rule
17

If the pages contain sermons about the future life and what awaits us there, that's expectoration.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:07 AM
horizontal rule
18

Book? I see no book here.

[pan to open window]

Defenestration.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:15 AM
horizontal rule
19

No, defenestration is when you drain a marsh.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:27 AM
horizontal rule
20

16 is going to make me feel dirty the next time I go to church. Speaking of which, if your Bible gets rained on on the way to (a Protestant) church, that's consubstantiation.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:31 AM
horizontal rule
21

If you get a local policeman involved, that's constipation.


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 1:32 AM
horizontal rule
22

If it's a prayerbook, and you remove just some of the pages, then spill a skim espresso over the rest, that's abbreviation.


Posted by: Amit | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 1:49 AM
horizontal rule
23

... a prayerbook which could be read aloud without uttering a single long vowel sound, with hymns sung to tunes containing only notes four minims long, and you ...


Posted by: Amit | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 2:25 AM
horizontal rule
24

23: That's debreviation.


Posted by: Amit | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 2:29 AM
horizontal rule
25

The real money's in syndication.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 5:29 AM
horizontal rule
26

if Ricky Ricardo spits on your book, it's desecration.


Posted by: My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 5:31 AM
horizontal rule
27

If you forgo the book entirely to fantasize about Bright Eyes, that's conurbation.


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 5:31 AM
horizontal rule
28

If J. Robert Oppenheimer destroys your book, it's abomination.


Posted by: My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 5:35 AM
horizontal rule
29

If you transport the book to a picturesque region of southeast Italy, that's calibration.


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 5:35 AM
horizontal rule
30

And if you read, study, and repeatedly re-read the book until you have mastered it, that's...

...nah, there is some fruit that's just too low to pick and while still retaining any self respect.


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 5:38 AM
horizontal rule
31

My father was a psychiatrist who got his MD at Duke, but unfortunately he's been dead for twenty years.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 5:59 AM
horizontal rule
32

If you successfully follow the instructions in this book, then urination.


Posted by: My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 6:16 AM
horizontal rule
33

a lot of new words, where to start
but now let's see the magic
which'd cut off the thread mysteriously


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 6:47 AM
horizontal rule
34

I know two people who are family psychologists who got undergraduate degrees from Duke 35 years ago.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 7:07 AM
horizontal rule
35

29: And if you take it to the beach while you're there, it's meditation.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 7:15 AM
horizontal rule
36

I know some Duke Crazies.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 7:26 AM
horizontal rule
37

If you vigorously hump the book until your flesh is raw, and then point the raw flesh out to your friends, that's lucubration.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 7:42 AM
horizontal rule
38

Was Blackwater USA named after the Doobie Brothers song?" Anyone know any Doobies?


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 7:44 AM
horizontal rule
39

Damn


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 7:45 AM
horizontal rule
40

What if you cut yourself while shaving your chest?


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 8:39 AM
horizontal rule
41

If you rub each page with Vaseline so that you can read it underwater, that's salvation.


Posted by: Mo MacArbie | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 8:39 AM
horizontal rule
42

And if the book is a collection of works of fiction written by doctors who deliver babies, that's obliteration.


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 8:43 AM
horizontal rule
43

surprise, surprise
it's not dead yet
where is gone my woodoo powers


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 8:48 AM
horizontal rule
44

38,39--
i've wondered the same wonder, je.
is 39 dispositive?
(didn't strike me so).


Posted by: kid bitzer | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 8:48 AM
horizontal rule
45

If the author stridently opposes the consumption of intoxicating beverages, that's...


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 8:48 AM
horizontal rule
46

are?
are, if plurals


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 8:48 AM
horizontal rule
47

38: Wikipedia says it's named after the waters of the Dismal Swamp from whence it came.


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 8:51 AM
horizontal rule
48

47--
thanks, k. shoulda looked there myself.
(the curiosity was *that idle*, if you can imagine: so idle i never even looked at wikipedia!
whose main function, it seems, is to lower the activation-energy needed for idle curiosity to be turned into active curiosity.
which you would think would be a good thing, until you actually meet it, a bit like genies granting wishes, which seems *alright!* until *oh fuck!*).


Posted by: kid bitzer | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 8:55 AM
horizontal rule
49

Subject came up at dinner with friends over the holidays just past, not T-day itself. I made the—I guess obvious—Doobie Brothers joke. The Illinois connection is Blackwater's occupation of the former Shimer College campus in Mt. Carroll. We all agreed that the name, and being headed-up by somebody named Erik Prinz, if I've spelled that correctly, were the sort of details which would make a novel trashy were the intent not comic.

One of those conversations which even in a week's retrospect I realize could only have occurred this fall.


Posted by: I don't pay | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 9:14 AM
horizontal rule
50

Eric Prince. They've got another exec. named Cofer Black (advisor to Mitt Romney, speaking of trashy novel names). As well as a lawyer named Ken Starr, and headquarters in a town named Moycock.

Read all about it in my forthcoming book "Rain of Cold Steel & Paper: Mercenaries and the federal judges who buy their line of crap.""


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 9:22 AM
horizontal rule
51

I was going to write a book like that about Custer Battles.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 9:26 AM
horizontal rule
52

If the book fails to respond to stimuli, its called vegetation.


Posted by: swampcracker | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 9:26 AM
horizontal rule
53

OT bleg: can someone please link to the christmas mix comment? because I've been looking for what feels like hours and can't find it.


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 9:27 AM
horizontal rule
54

Here.


Posted by: Merganser | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 9:40 AM
horizontal rule
55

obviously nobody here knows how to use a straight man anymore.


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 9:41 AM
horizontal rule
56

40: That's nictitation!


Posted by: Matt Weiner with a mustache | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 9:42 AM
horizontal rule
57

I think Blackwater should also consider hiring Fabio.


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 9:44 AM
horizontal rule
58

What if you cut yourself while shaving your chest?

That's unfortunate.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 9:45 AM
horizontal rule
59

Unfortunitation, you mean.


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 9:49 AM
horizontal rule
60

For nictitation, I recommend stipulation.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 9:51 AM
horizontal rule
61

57: "Of course, if we have to go to war with Iran, we are right there. That's the only good side." On the next page, he can't believe it's not butter.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 9:56 AM
horizontal rule
62

61: actually, this is my favorite quote from the whole article:

"The beauty about this country, you come out with ideas and you have a ghostwriter," he says. "Every single celebrity, they have ghostwriter. That's the beauty about America."


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 9:59 AM
horizontal rule
63

On the next page, he can't believe it's not butter.

But what he doesn't know is that it actually is butter.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:01 AM
horizontal rule
64

Could it be butter?


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:04 AM
horizontal rule
65

Voolay voodoo burr?


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:12 AM
horizontal rule
66

Say mwah.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:12 AM
horizontal rule
67

Butter it's not!


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:13 AM
horizontal rule
68

Read all about it in my forthcoming book "Rain of Cold Steel & Paper: Mercenaries and the federal judges who buy their line of crap.""

You know, have you thought of maybe doing this for real? A memoir-y kind of book on your work on torture and rendition, addressing the substance, but also how you came to it and the work you did? That's the sort of thing I'd read. Obviously, this is the sort of project easily attacked in your copious spare time.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:13 AM
horizontal rule
69

54: Thanks, ducky.


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:18 AM
horizontal rule
70

Butter? As if.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:19 AM
horizontal rule
71

If you creatively smuggle the book through customs, that's rectification.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:28 AM
horizontal rule
72

No, rectification is what you'd do to Matt F if he were into that sort of thing.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:31 AM
horizontal rule
73

You know, have you thought of maybe doing this for real? A memoir-y kind of book on your work on torture and rendition, addressing the substance, but also how you came to it and the work you did? That's the sort of thing I'd read.

I kinda' mean this half seriously: Katherine should write the book, but do it in such a way that it will attract the attention of a Hollywood screenwriter. Starting in about 2010, if not sooner, I expect that there will be a flood of movies addressing the Vergangenheitsbewältigung of the GWB era, and she will make a lot more money from the movie rights than from the LB's of the world buying the book.

Caveat: I'm thinking that Katherine will actually need to have an affair with some client who has been tortured and is sueing the government, or perhaps extraordinarily rendered herself, or both, in order to make the story Hollywood-worthy, so she might want to get to work on that now.

Alternatively, she could build the narrative around some ex-special forces guy (to be played by Matt Damon) who becomes a mercenary and subsequently blows the lid off their heinous practices by leaking documents to Katherine. And they have an affair.


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:31 AM
horizontal rule
74

have now difficulties to interpret the thread
salutation or mokkery
any clarification?


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:32 AM
horizontal rule
75

55 made me laugh, even though it's the first comment of the thread that I read. I think it's because it could be safely used on any Unfogged thread whatsoever.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:34 AM
horizontal rule
76

68: you and my mother. Seriously, thanks. But there are a ton of books about this, and my part of story is way too simple/boring to be of interest to anyone who doesn't know me (or at least pretend-internet know me). ("I read an article! Then I ran some google searches! Then I wrote some blog posts! Then I ran some Lexis searches! Then I wrote a law review article!" etc.)

I'm helping Jane Mayer with a book. Y'all should buy that one when it comes out. Also this one.


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:42 AM
horizontal rule
77

But none of those people slept with the captive/mercenary, Katherine. It's your willingness to go the extra mile for Hollywood that makes you special.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:44 AM
horizontal rule
78

76: But the interesting thing isn't what you did, it's what you thought and what you knew -- how your understanding unfolded. "First I thought 'What an awful article, what a freak thing to have happened.' Then I did a couple of searches and realized 'Bizarre, it's not a freak thing, it's a policy. Huh, if people knew about it, they'd make it stop.' Then I wrote an article. Then...'


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 10:47 AM
horizontal rule
79

No, rectification is what you'd do to Matt F if he were into that sort of thing.

And how!


Posted by: Matt F | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:04 AM
horizontal rule
80

Then I wrote an article. Then...

...a package arrived anonymously in the mail. At first I couldn't make out what it was, then slowly the truth dawned on me: [a timpani intrudes into the musical score] pictures of David Addington leaving the Blackwater complex...

OR

...my phone rang. [Ideally this should happen while you are in the bathtub, so that the screenplay can show a brief shot of Holly Hunter's nipples as she emerges from the tub] The person on the other end sounded scared. He wouldn't tell me his name, but he spoke with a strong Arabic accent...


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:06 AM
horizontal rule
81

That is interesting. But it rates an essay or a long post, not a book....There's actually two related processes: the process of realizing what's going on analytically & seeing that information get disseminated (we've gradually gone from no one I know in real life having heard of rendition except through me, to hollywood movies about it, albeit unsucessful ones); & the process of getting drawn into caring about it.

During school I used to go to a lot of earnest liberal talks about how to change policy X, & what we could do to make a difference in the world, which always ended with the conclusion: "we need a popular movement." I always thought: "WTF does that mean? Build a movement how? I realize movements have existed, but what are you actually suggesting I do to create one?"

I think I know how it happens; the two word version is, "peer pressure." You get drawn further in because you doing this work introduces you to other people who do it, & become friends with them, & you talk to your friends about it, etc. You can see how this would become very powerful indeed once you reached a critical mass of people--& that's when we start calling it a movement.

Along similar lines, the people affected by these issues gradually become real to you: first you read a news article, then you read a detailed first-person account, then you hear a radio interview, then you watch a TV interview, then you may actually meet someone. (Then, I guess, you sleep with someone. I'm not quite that dedicated to the cause yet, though.) At some point, empathy kicks in. How soon depends, but even Republican Congressmen seem embarrassed to look Arar in the eye--even via video link--& tell him this was okay.

By the same token, isolation breeds hopelessness & burnout. And this is my big problem right now--the only person I really work with on the big Abu Ghraib case is my boss, who is an admirable person but who stresses the crap out of me. And exhanging emails with your boss just isn't ever as much fun as working with a peer--I need a co-conspirator, preferably one who lives in the same city as me.

Anyway. Rambling.


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:12 AM
horizontal rule
82

Katherine--this time in all seriousness: do you know La/u/ra D/i/ck/inson?


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:13 AM
horizontal rule
83

no. Name sounds familiar but not someone I've ever met.


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:14 AM
horizontal rule
84

But none of those people slept with the captive/mercenary, Katherine. It's your willingness to go the extra mile for Hollywood a Modern Love column that makes you special.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:16 AM
horizontal rule
85

obviously nobody here knows how to use a straight man anymore.

And this, this lowest of low-hanging fruit, remains unplucked. This was like the Gödel statement of set-up lines, people.


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:16 AM
horizontal rule
86

And exhanging emails with your boss just isn't ever as much fun as working with a peer--I need a co-conspirator, preferably one who lives in the same city as me.

I have absolutely no idea how to do this or if it's practical at all. But I wonder if there's anyway to get an unpaid law-student intern, either formally or informally. Might be useful, I bet there are plenty of law students who'd give a limb to work on your case, and it'd give you someone to bounce stuff off of.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:17 AM
horizontal rule
87

She's the first google result on the name (not the 22 y.o. who got raped and murdered). Her academic specialty is right up your alley. I know her from way back, can "introduce" you if you're interested.


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:17 AM
horizontal rule
88

Yeah, we actually have some interns, & I should do a better job cultivating that. In particular I'm hoping to persuade a prof. and some students at the Northwestern clinic to get involved after New Year's (my connections there are currently on sabbatical in Italy).


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:20 AM
horizontal rule
89

I feel your pain, Slol.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:23 AM
horizontal rule
90

But what he doesn't know is that it actually is butter.

We've replaced Fabio's butter-flavored vegetable spread with Folger's freeze-dried crystals. Let's see if he notices.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:23 AM
horizontal rule
91

87=>83.


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:28 AM
horizontal rule
92

87: thanks muchly. I may take you up on that. I would rather do so when I have something specific & well thought out to ask about rather than "halp!" though.


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:34 AM
horizontal rule
93

I give, and I give.


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:36 AM
horizontal rule
94

85: I actually typed "Labs?" in response to that, and then figured I'd leave it for someone else to come up with something better. Sometimes, the lowest hanging fruit rots on the vine.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:42 AM
horizontal rule
95

Sometimes, the lowest hanging fruit rots on the vine.

I'll say. It's not like 45 was *that* obscure.


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:50 AM
horizontal rule
96

OT: Okay, lawyer types. Input please! I'm working on a pro bono criminal appeal and want to order missing transcripts, and the partner-in-charge thinks it's a needless expense unless I have reason to think there would be an appealable issue in those portions andI think how the hell can I know whether there's anything appealable there if I don't order and read them. Am I being uptight and overcautious?!


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:50 AM
horizontal rule
97

"He was subject to rendition, flown away to a far-off land to be tortured. But the real torture lay in how his absence rendered my heart empty, gutted like the victims of so many heartless torturers."


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:51 AM
horizontal rule
98

Our court of appeals routinely throws out cases by claiming that the full record necessary was not available.


Posted by: Will | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:54 AM
horizontal rule
99

98: Yeah, that's exactly the kind of thing that makes me nervous.


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:55 AM
horizontal rule
100

96: wtf? That sounds dangerously close to a breach of legal ethics. Of course you should oder the transcripts. I can't imagine your *not* doing so if there were a paying client on the other end, and you aren't supposed to treat a pro bono client any differently.


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:58 AM
horizontal rule
101

97: "He was a mercenary, a man who took up arms on behalf of the highest bidder. He gave me documents because he loved me. And I loved him back. But I couldn't escape the question: Did I love him because he gave me documents? Was I, in fact, the real mercenary?"


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 11:59 AM
horizontal rule
102

Re: people on sabbatical in Italy, Katherine, I can hook you the hell up. I have strong connections with the other half of that outfit. If you want I can try to put you in touch.

But if you need a co-conspirator, I should volunteer my boyfriend, who is graduating in like 3 weeks, is hilarious, and basically a genius.

I would volunteer myself, except, like, I've already got other Very Important Justice to pursue that I've been slacking on for three months.


Posted by: m. leblanc | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:06 PM
horizontal rule
103

I can't see not ordering them, unless there was some specific reason to be pretty sure that there was nothing there (like, the only missing bit was a hearing over a discovery issue, with the jury out of the room, that went your way, then maybe you wouldn't need it). But otherwise, you need the transcript.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:08 PM
horizontal rule
104

Also, I agree with 100. How the hell else are you supposed to find out whether there's something appealable, if not through the transcripts?

I went through a phase where I would go watch argument down at the 7th Cir. occasionally, and all the criminal appeals I saw argued, people would refer to the transcript saying this and that.

Also, how the hell much does it cost, anyway? Lame.


Posted by: m. leblanc | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:10 PM
horizontal rule
105

A friend of mine recently started a private investigation firm specializing in this stuff & I used to tease him about needing a hat & a bottle of rye in his office. Maybe I can ask him if he can introduce me to any mercenaries named "Colt Remington", or something equally atmospheric.

102: thanks. I would love buy the two of you a drink sometime--volunteering him as a co-conspirator would be an added bonus but I would love to buy you guys a drink anyway.

I sometimes think that the int'l stuff get might actually get too much attention compared to U.S. prison conditions. The other associate in my firm focuses on that--he's great, but he's in another state, & the only cases we overlap on are the boring ones.


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:12 PM
horizontal rule
106

OT: Yes, it's a lovely fucking concerto and all that, but when you have the same conference call every week and the call always starts late, one can get sick of the thing. Get some new on-hold music, people!


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:12 PM
horizontal rule
107

Like $500. Apparently dropping phrases like "ethical issue" and "risk management" were persuasive -- thanks for the collective confidence that I was not over the top dropping such phrases.


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:13 PM
horizontal rule
108

I can't imagine your *not* doing so if there were a paying client on the other end, and you aren't supposed to treat a pro bono client any differently.

To be fair, having done both court appointed and retained stuff, in retained work, your client has to agree to pay the cost prior to ordering them (or rather pay the cost.) In court appointed work, the state pays for them.


Posted by: Will | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:15 PM
horizontal rule
109

To be fair ... in retained work, your client has to agree to pay the cost prior to ordering them (or rather pay the cost.)

Has to specifically agree? Their general hiring you to defend them in the trial and through a potential appeal wouldn't cover your ordering a $500 transcript without prior express authorization?

I would expect with a paying client you'd just order it and bill them.

Also, 100 was a little unfair in that you are technically okay charging pro bono clients for your direct out-of-pocket expenses (or in the alternative, not incurring those expenses). You don't have to shell out on the client's behalf just because you are donating your time and expertise. But come the fuck on. It's $500.


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:25 PM
horizontal rule
110

Apparently, in our situation the government will cover the cost only if we can establish that the missing transcripts are necessary to the issues to be raised on appeal. Which, of course, how the hell do I know untill I review the transcripts?!

Having done pro bono work prior to selling my soul to The Firm, thinking about cost is a major mind shift. My thinking with non-paying clients was always that zealous advocacy requires essentially leaving no stone unturned. Adjusting to work for paying clients meant learning that sometimes a cost-benefit analysis is appropriate and appreciated.


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:34 PM
horizontal rule
111

110: Not long ago I was present in a room in which three law firm partners (not from my firm, thankfully) spent over three hours (collectively, about 10 hours billed at rates that are certainly over $500/hr, and probably significantly over) arguing over the allocation of a contingent tax liability with a maximum exposure of about $5000, that had probably about a 25% chance of becoming a true liablity, and that certainly wouldn't become a true liability until sometime 3-4 years out.

That's the sort of thing that can only happen when there's no client in the room.


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:41 PM
horizontal rule
112

That's the sort of thing that can only happen when there's no client in the room.

...says the $325/hr associate, commenting away on unfogged.

(Yes, we all live in that glass house, I know.)


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:50 PM
horizontal rule
113

I don't bill clients for my comments.


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:52 PM
horizontal rule
114

I don't bill clients for my comments.

Me neither. Not on a piece-rate basis, anyway.


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:54 PM
horizontal rule
115

The incisive back-and-forth of commenting here hones one's wits and argumentative capabilities, and one can thus justify splitting time spent in that pursuit evenly among all one's clients.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:54 PM
horizontal rule
116

I don't bill clients for my comments.

Only if they link.


Posted by: Tassled Loafered Leech | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:55 PM
horizontal rule
117

The incisive back-and-forth of commenting here hones one's wits and argumentative capabilities, and one can thus justify splitting time spent in that pursuit evenly among all one's clients.

And if I ever get into any legal trouble, I'm going to turn to one of y'all. So it's a business development expense.


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:55 PM
horizontal rule
118

Only if they link have weak controls in the accounts payable department.


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 12:57 PM
horizontal rule
119

government will cover the cost only if we can establish that the missing transcripts are necessary

Well, you front the cost, and then work like hell to show that they were necessary, and then the gov't will reimburse you, right?


Posted by: m. leblanc | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 1:02 PM
horizontal rule
120

weak controls in the accounts payable department.

We routinely get "bills" from supposed Yellow Pages type books and copier paper invoices that I assume get paid more often than Nigerian emails.


Posted by: Tassled Loafered Leech | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 1:05 PM
horizontal rule
121

119: That's the really bizarre thing -- it looks like our only shot is getting the government to cover the cost up front, there is apparently no mechanism for after the fact reimbursement. Not that this is exactly news, but criminal justice for the poor really kind of sucks.


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 1:11 PM
horizontal rule
122

then work like hell to show that they were necessary

Can't necessarily. They could be a thousand pages of nothing appealable happening.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 1:11 PM
horizontal rule
123

122: Probably will be. But if I don't order them, I can guarantee with my luck that the missing pages would be pure gold.


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 1:14 PM
horizontal rule
124

We routinely get "bills" from supposed Yellow Pages type books and copier paper invoices that I assume get paid more often than Nigerian emails.

The Republican direct mail machine gets a lot of money out of quasi-senile old people that way. Once when I got one of these "invoices" for "membership dues" from the RNC, I filed a mail fraud complaint against Marc Racicot with the the inspector general of the USPS, but I didn't get very far with that.


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 1:14 PM
horizontal rule
125

124.---That really is awful. Why didn't you get very far with the complaint?


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 1:18 PM
horizontal rule
126

Why didn't you get very far with the complaint?

Well, the benign answer is that the direct mail campaigns are carefully vetted by lawyers to look as much like invoices as possible to fool the unwary without actually crossing the line into overt fraud. I doubt that my complaint made it past the first waste basket.

The less benign answer is that GWB has made it his business to thoroughly politicize all the offices of the inspectors general of every agency.


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 1:24 PM
horizontal rule
127

Hello. My name is Mike Duncan, Chairman of the Republican Committee. I recently came across some accounts that had been used by Ronald Reagan for his reelection campaign in 1984 that had significant amounts left in them, unused. One had $1,003,764,954.12! Because of silly campaign refinance laws, we can not use them to support our candidates. If you give me your bank account number, I will transfer these funds to your account. You may keep 10%, but the rest you must donate to the Republican candidate of your choice. Hurry, before Hillary gets elected and steals this money.


Posted by: Tassled Loafered Leech | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 1:34 PM
horizontal rule
128

120: that I assume get paid more often than Nigerian emails.

Speaking of which, our e-mail administrator forwarded to me this great twist on the Nigerian 419 e-mails. (Googling, I do see it has been around for a bit.)

Subject: Do you care for puppy adoption ?

MY NAME IS ROBIN PETER, I AND MY WIFE AND 3 KIDS ARE ON A CHRISTIAN MISSION TO AFRICA AND I CAME
ALONG WITH MY 2 YORKSHIRE TERRIER PUPPIES.

AFTER A WHILE I NOTICE THAT THE AFRICAN WEATHER IS NOT GOOD FOR THE PUPPIES AND I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE
TO TAKE GOOD CARE OF THEM THE WAY I ALWAYS DO BECAUSE OF MY JOB. THEY ARE AKC REGISTERD. - TEACUP.
HOME RAISED,VACINES & HEALTH GUARANTEE.

I NEED SOMEONE TO ADOPT BOTH AND TAKE CARE OF THEM FOREVER THE WAY I ALWAYS DO. IF YOU CAN TAKE GOOD
CARE OF THEM DO SEND A REPLY AND WILL EMAIL YOU WITH MORE INFO.

P/S: PROVIDE A CONTACT PHONE NUMBER FOR FURTHER COMMUNICATION.


I HOPE TO READ FROM YOU.

REGARDS,
REV. ROBIN PETER
MOTTO: IN GOD WE TRUST


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 1:38 PM
horizontal rule
129

i got it
ignoration


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 1:42 PM
horizontal rule
130

127: Very nice. (aka pwned!)

Republican version incorporating the basic idea in 128.

Send us money or we'll kill this dog.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-30-07 1:48 PM
horizontal rule