Reading Other People's Mail - Lynne Cheney v. WhiteHouse.Org.  Time on their hands. The Counsel to the Vice President (of the U.S.) wrote a demand letter to the operator of whitehouse.org asking that it remove this fictitious bio of the VP's wife, ... Mrs. Cheney. Some might view the fake bio to be political speech. The VP's lawyer believes that the disclaimer indicating that the website is a parody is insufficent. They're probably bummed about the clown-nose photo as well. Perhaps VP Cheney has coulrophobia. Go to the site - you be the judge. I appreciate that the government should incur expense for ensuring Mrs. Cheney's physical safety. However, while the letter does mention mis-use of the presidential seal, the thrust of the letter alleges violations of Mrs. Cheney's rights of privacy and publicity, torts suggesting economic harm. As such, it's interesting that the government pays for the lawyer (I'm not familiar with the law on this - if you are, please share). Practitioner's Note: Further proof that protesting something is the best way to ensure its universal dissemination. ...Further aside: Coulrophobia is the term for fear of clowns. I read that on the Volokh Conspiracy so it must be true. [The Trademark Blog]The Clinton administration gave us whitehouse.com which featured the Intern of the Month & other nasties (I don't know if it's still up - and I definitely wouldn't want to check while I'm at work!). Now the George W. Bush administration has inspired whitehouse.org, a very different kind of site. This site made me laugh more than anything else in the entire week. It was almost rofl & lmao. I felt tempted buy one of their "Thought Criminal" t-shirts. I only wish that the parody was a little bit more subtle so that it would blur the distinction between truth & exaggeration some more. The most fascinating & scary section is the feedback area. If you look at the older comments (remembering that the comments are in reverse chronological order) there are some who appear to be genuinely confused if whitehouse.org is real or not (" i am in the US ARMY and am very upset by what i see on this site, i thought the White house would be more professional about what they show the public."). Of course, given whitehouse.org's recent publicity by Drudge and Salon, the more recent comments are very hateful indeed. Most of these comments are even more extreme than the language on the main whitehouse.org site - so maybe the parody isn't over the top. I think that these reader comments are more damning of their authors than the most brutal parody or insult which the left could hurl. The evidence comes out of their own mouths. If anyone had the stomach for it, I think it would be a great concept for a blog - to find and record these vignettes for posterity and for all to see. Some of these comments are so over the top and full of visceral hatred that they can't seem real - surely they're invented. But I've received such comments and I know that I didn't invent them. That's the reason why I turned off my comments feature. I realize that criticism is one of drawbacks of expressing an opinion, but at least on my own blog, which I pay for, I'll get the last word. Dialogue would be nice - but it's almost impossible over the internet when there are such diametrically opposed positions. It's easier to have constructive, respectful debate with somebody face to face - when people can't so easily ignore the other's humanity.
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