http://harpers.org/rss/index.xml Harper's Magazine: Founded June 1850. en-us Copyright Harper's Magazine Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:18:53 -0400 http://www.harpers.org/media/image/Harpers_305x100.gif http://harpers.org http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005293 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005293 Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:18:28 -0400 It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights; that confidence is every where the parent of despotism; free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go; and let the honest advocate of confidence read the Alien and Sedition Acts, and say if the Constitution has not been wise in fixing limits to the government it created, and whether we should be wise in destroying those limits; let him say what the government is, if it be not a tyranny, which the men of our choice have conferred on the President, and the President of our choice has assented to and accepted, over the friendly strangers, to whom the mild spirit of our country and its laws had pledged hospitality and protection; that the men of our choice have more respected the bare suspicions of the President than the solid rights of innocence, the claims of justification, the sacred force of truth, and the forms and substance of law and justice. In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005291 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005291 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:45:46 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005290 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005290 Ken Silverstein Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:22:45 -0400 When Barack Obama nominated Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, he made her appointment contingent on her husband revealing the contributors to his foundation in order to avoid any questions about potential conflicts of interest. The foundation subsequently disclosed its donors– after refusing to list them for a decade– and it turned out they included many “governments, corporations and billionaires with their own interests in U.S. foreign policy”. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005288 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005288 Ken Silverstein Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:47:13 -0400 Not since endorsing horse slaughter have I received so many angry emails from readers of this blog as I have in response to my recent posts about the lamentable American soccer team. Really, American soccer fans need to lighten up; the anti-horse-slaughter crowd had a much better sense of humor. Also, fans might want to channel some of their energy and passion into more enlightened causes than soccer, such as ending world hunger and homelessness. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005289 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005289 Ken Silverstein Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:38:00 -0400 From Politico: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005285 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005285 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:05:07 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005286 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005286 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:29:50 -0400 Because of an editing error, “The Less You Know” [Readings, June], an abridged transcript of a December 19, 2005, telephone conversation between Bernard Madoff and executives of the Fairfield Greenwich Group (FGG), mistakenly suggested that FGG permitted Madoff to remove funds directly from its accounts. The edited transcript also erroneously implied that Madoff was operating FGG’s fund. Furthermore, the Fairfield Greenwich Group has advised Harper’s Magazine that it was at the time of the conversation fully cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and that it notified the SEC about the phone call and all aspects of the conversation with Madoff. We regret the errors. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005284 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005284 Ken Silverstein Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:04:54 -0400 The Daily Show and the Colbert Report were both unmissable last night. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005283 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005283 Ken Silverstein Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:01:21 -0400 Yesterday I posted an item describing a picture (sent to me by several sources) of former President Bill Clinton posing for the camera with Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the dictator of Uzbekistan and a woman widely accused of corruption and thuggery. I didn’t post the picture because I wasn’t sure who owned the rights, but a reader emailed me to say that I could find a copy at Gulnara’s personal website, so here it is. (Incidentally, for a taste of just how vile Gulnara is, spend a few moments on her site.) . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005282 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005282 Ken Silverstein Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:46:43 -0400 I received dozens of replies to yesterday’s post about why I hate the American soccer team and was so happy to see it seize defeat from the jaws of victory in the Confederation Cup final against Brazil. The replies were overwhelmingly negative and a few were nasty (”You are embarrassing to our nation, the sport and journalism”). I’ll publish a few below. Thanks to everyone for writing, even Matt Horton, who sent that last comment (and I published the most civilized sentence of his tirade). . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005281 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005281 Scott Horton Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:45:00 -0400 Often enough, commentators talk about the prospect that some foreign prosecutors will open criminal cases against Americans involved in some of the Bush Administration’s criminal enterprises, such as the operation of the torture black sites. But such cases are not speculative. They are already pending, and the most advanced of them is now coming close to the conclusion of the trial phase. In Milan, Italian prosecutors are pursuing kidnapping and assault charges against 26 American officials—CIA officers, diplomats, and a military attaché—in connection with the seizure and torture of a radical Islamic cleric known as Abu Omar. According to some observers, the case will conclude by the end of the summer. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005279 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005279 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:52:37 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005278 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005278 Ken Silverstein Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:52:02 -0400 From the New York Times: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005277 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005277 Ken Silverstein Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:50:10 -0400 Two trusted sources have sent me a picture of former President Bill Clinton posing for the camera with a woman who the sources say is Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the dictator of Uzbekistan, one of the world’s worst regimes. The picture is undated but was clearly taken recently. I haven’t published it because I don’t know who owns the rights, but I have compared it with photographs of Gulnara on the web and it certainly appears to be her. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005276 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005276 Ken Silverstein Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:41:51 -0400 I used to work at the Los Angeles Times and still read it online regularly, although I rarely see a hard copy. I was just in Los Angeles for a week and was surprised to see that — despite Sam Zell’s best efforts to destroy it — it’s still an exceedingly good newspaper. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005275 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005275 Ken Silverstein Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:35:11 -0400 Americans almost always interpret international sports victories as demonstrations of national superiority, so it was wonderful to watch the U.S. soccer team’s massive choke in the Confederation Cup final against Brazil. Ahead 2-0 at the half, the Americans watched helplessly as Brazil scored three goals in the second half to win. (Actually four, but the referee blew a call and failed to credit what I, watching the game on television, could see was an obvious goal by Kaka.) . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005274 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005274 Ken Silverstein Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:24:40 -0400 From the Wall Street Journal: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/WeeklyReview2009-06-30 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/WeeklyReview2009-06-30 Theodore Ross Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400 Iraq held its first National Sovereignty Day in honor of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities. A celebration was held with poets and singers in Baghdad's al-Zawraa park and former Vice President Dick Cheney said that he was worried that the withdrawal would “waste all the tremendous sacrifice that has gotten us to this point.” Two hundred Iraqis were killed or wounded in the last ten days of June. CNN The Washington Times A federal court judge in New York City sentenced Bernard Madoff to 150 years in prison, calling Madoff “extraordinarily evil” and noting that none of the financier's family members, friends, or associates had pleaded for leniency on his behalf. NY Times Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was exiled to Costa Rica by the military as part of a coup d'etat under the direction of the Honduran Supreme Court; he was replaced by Roberto Michelletti, who took power in what he called “an absolutely legal transition process.” BBC News Steve Jobs returned to Apple with a new liver. NY Times Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that attempts by governments to censor the Internet were futile, and that governments censored “at their own peril.” Telegraph The New York Times revealed that, for seven months, it had sought to keep news of the kidnapping of one of its reporters by the Taliban out of the media, and had worked closely with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to suppress news of the kidnapping. The New York Times Spanish fertility researchers advised professional cyclists to freeze their sperm, BBC News and the sheriff of Los Angeles County was considering whether to distribute condoms to all L.A. jail inmates, rather than just the gay ones. LA Times . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005272 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005272 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:40:38 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005271 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005271 Scott Horton Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:56:56 -0400 The chief judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals acted preemptively in an apparent effort to head off challenges to his colleague, torture lawyer turned judge Jay Bybee. On Friday, public interests groups in California filed a judicial misconduct complaint against Bybee based on his focal role in creating legal memoranda designed to protect torturers against criminal prosecution. Judge Alex Kozinski handed down a decision stating that judges of the court of appeals could not be held accountable for any crimes they may have committed before they came on the bench—at least not through the court’s own internal disciplinary mechanisms. Bybee had prepared the torture memoranda for the Department of Justice while his nomination to the federal bench was in the process of being cleared, and some critics have seen evidence of a quid pro quo arrangement under which he prepared the memoranda in order to get the appointment as a federal judge. Bybee is now the subject of a criminal investigation in the Spanish Audiencia Nacional—making him the first American federal appeals court judge to continue on the bench after becoming the subject of a criminal proceeding. John Roemer of the Daily Journal reports:(subscription required) . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005269 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005269 Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:57:00 -0400 Verde que te quiero verde. Verde viento. Verdes ramas. El barco sobre la mar y el caballo en la montaña. Con la sombra en la cintura ella sueña en su baranda, verde carne, pelo verde, con ojos de fría plata. Verde que te quiero verde. Bajo la luna gitana, las cosas le están mirando y ella no puede mirarlas. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005136 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005136 Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:17:06 -0400 Vita brevis, sensus ebes, negligentiæ torpor et inutiles occupationes nos pancula scire permittent. Et aliquotients scita excutit ab animo per temporum frandatrix scientiæ et inimica memoriam præceps oblivio. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005265 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005265 Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:58:38 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/0082515 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/0082515 Ronald Reagan Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:39:36 -0400 Dear Michael, . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005267 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005267 Mr. Fish Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:38:41 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005261 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005261 Scott Horton Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:47:20 -0400 Why was Paul K. Charlton, the man appointed by George W. Bush in 2001 as U.S. attorney in Arizona, fired from his job in the immediate wake of the 2006 election? Charlton was pursuing a corruption investigation into G.O.P. Congressman Rick Renzi. Karl Rove and his acolytes in the White House were deeply concerned that information about the investigation could cost the G.O.P. a vital seat in the House. That fact seems clearly to have played a major role in the decision to fire Charlton. But it seems that political meddling with the Renzi case was not limited to Charlton’s firing. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005262 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005262 Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:28:54 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005260 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005260 Scott Horton Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:49:11 -0400 While the collapse of the Justice Department’s prosecution of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens and the criminal probe targeting the Department’s senior prosecutors responsible for political cases have gained some recent attention, the story of prosecutorial misconduct in high-profile political cases over the last eight years remains largely unexplored. On Friday, June 26, a forum in Washington will focus attention on these cases and will revive the call for Congressional probes and an internal accounting within the Justice Department. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005257 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005257 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:20:05 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005255 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005255 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:09:16 -0400 . . .