Shortly after noon yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee, led by chairman John Conyers (D-MI), voted to issue contempt citations for Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten, both of whom refused to…
“You see two individuals,” [Teufelsdrokh] writes, “one dressed in fine Red, the other in coarse threadbare Blue: Red says to Blue, ‘Be hanged and anatomized;’ Blue hears with a shudder,…
There have been a series of accounts out of Ethiopia recently that describe a nasty situation there, including a Human Rights Watch report earlier this month that said the Ethiopian…
For the last couple of months we’ve been focusing on the politicization of the Justice Department under both John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales, and the significant number of prosecutions brought…
Two reporters worked from opposite ends of Alabama to whip up stories in a successful effort to take down former Governor Siegelman and to legitimize a highly political prosecution. In…
For those of you who missed the testimony of Alberto Gonzales before the Judiciary Committee, I’d recommend making the effort to catch it on a CSPAN rebroadcast. There’s simply no…
The proposal of any new law or regulation which comes from [businessmen], ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having…
A number of the bloggers who participate in conference calls organized by the Pentagon’s public affairs office have objected to recent stories I’ve posted about the project. “There is, Black…
Michiko Kakutani, “An Epic Showdown as Harry Potter Is Initiated Into Adulthood,” The New York Times, July 19, 2007: While Ms. Rowling’s astonishingly limber voice still moves effortlessly between Ron’s…
I’m sitting in a bar in Edinburgh, Scotland, and guess what people are watching? Alberto Gonzales testifying. (Many rude comments in the background. Even watching “Trainspotting” did not prepare me…
Today Attorney General Gonzales appears to testify under oath once more before Congress. Let’s see if his memory has cleared up any. But in the meantime, the questions he urgently…
From the awkward access to the lawyer’s mansion, Mannering was induced to form very moderate expectations of the entertainment which he was to receive. The approach looked even more dismal…
Executive power was transferred to Vice President Dick Cheney for two hours and five minutes while President George W. Bush underwent a routine colonoscopy. Spokesman Scott Stanzel announced that five…
It was the middle of 1789; it was in the old world, but on the cusp of a new one. The ancients would have called it a cæsura, a cutting…
Mankind are, in all ages, caught by the same baits: The same tricks, played over and over again, still trepan them. The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the…
I am in Britain this week, and impressed by the coverage that the British tory press is giving to the Justice Department scandal in the United States. In their view,…
War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone…
Scott Horton is at an academic conference in the land of thistles and heather and will be blogging on a reduced schedule until his return to the States next week.
And how nobly it raises our conceit of the mighty, misty monster, to behold him solemnly sailing through a calm tropical sea; his vast, mild head overhung by a canopy…
Scott Horton will be on Air America’s Rachel Maddow Show today, Friday, July 20, from 7:35-8:00 Eastern time, discussing the forthcoming Congressional investigation into the prosecution of Alabama Governor Don…
Harper’s has received this press release from Dana Jill Simpson concerning recent developments in the Siegelman case, reproduced in full below: Truth is marching on. I will not allow Middle…
Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein, Broader Privilege Claimed In Firings: White House says Hill can’t pursue contempt cases, The Washington Post, July 20, 2007: [Bush] administration officials argued yesterday that…
No, we’re not going into competition with our counterparts over at The Atlantic, but this submission from a reader at NYU is too good to pass up, especially in light…
Randy Scheunemann, a lobbyist for the government of Georgia, has sent a letter criticizing my recent story on the trial of Maia Topuria. The letter appears below. I asked Lawrence…
Congressional investigations on various fronts are now being obstructed at every step by the Bush Administration. Word began circulating during the winter that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who personally developed…
We may not stop until we have done our part to fashion a world in which there shall be some share of fellowship; which shall be better than a den…
Ken Silverstein, “How the Pentagon’s ‘Surrogates Operation’ Feeds Stories Directly to Administration-Friendly Bloggers,” July 19, 2007: The unit was initially called the “Surrogates Operation” but was later rechristened as “Communications…