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Archive: Aug 2008

The Murtha Rules: A simple system to win federal money

Congressman John Murtha of Pennsylvania has long been one of the biggest porkbarrelers in Congress, and as the chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee he is also one of…

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Congressman Vern Buchanan: Would you buy a used car from this man?

From a complaint filed today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, against Congressman Vern Buchanan (R., Fl.): Rep. Buchanan owns several car dealerships in Florida. In September 2005,…

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In Pursuit of Kafka’s Porn Cache: Six questions for James Hawes

James Hawes had a brilliant start to his career as a novelist with A White Merc with Fins, and he’s gone on to have one of his works filmed and…

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Weekly Review

After more than a week of fighting and one failed cease-fire, Russia and Georgia signed a revised cease-fire agreement, but Russian troops remained within 25 miles of the Georgian capital,…

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Olympic Protests: Another Triumph for Jacques Rogge’s “Silent Diplomacy”

Ever since Beijing was awarded the right to host the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee has been talking about the beneficial impact this would have on human rights in…

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The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Two Party System

Is there a more boring organization in America than the corporate-sponsored Bipartisan Policy Center, which is hosting big ticket events to both the Democratic and Republican conventions? The Center was…

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I’ll Have My Tie, With a Side Order of Fries

As the crisis in the Caucasus grows, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili enjoys a snack. This does not inspire a great deal of confidence in the Georgian leader’s ability to hold…

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More’s Immortality

Behold a light far brighter than the Sun! The Sun’s a shadow if you them compare, Or grosse Cimmerian mist; the fairest Noon Exceeds not the meridian night so far…

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Military Judge Finds Political Manipulation in Gitmo, Again

The proceedings in the Guantánamo military commissions continue, and the professional participants continue to grapple with the poorly disguised efforts of the Bush Administration to fix the outcome. JAG attorneys…

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Solzhenitsyn – The Challenge of the Modern Age

Even if we are spared destruction by war, our lives will have to change if we want to save life from self-destruction. We cannot avoid revising the fundamental definitions of…

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Weekend Read: “May Christ send you sorrow and a serious illness”

In these pages, in 1947, Jacques Barzun reviewed Malcolm Lowry’s novel, Under the Volcano. Barzun’s review, a terse paragraph in a long essay that bundled many books together with the…

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Alan Greenspan: The maestro has no wand

From today’s Washington Post: It’s been nearly a decade since Greenspan’s stock hit its all-time high with the now-famous Time magazine cover during the Asian financial crisis — the one…

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The Zero-Calorie Debates

In 1988, the decisive moment in the presidential campaign may have come when CNN’s Bernard Shaw asked Dukakis this question, opening one of the Bush-Dukakis debates: “Governor, if Kitty Dukakis…

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Change We Can Believe In? Democratic keynoter biggest recipient of lobbying money

From the Sunlight Foundation: Mark Warner, who’s running for Virginia’s open seat to the U.S. Senate and will serve as the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Denver,…

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Travel Advisory for Pakistan: Don’t carry your satellite phone

From Doug Frantz at the Washington Independent: Al Qaeda and the Taliban are executing suspected U.S. informants in Pakistan in a campaign to terrorize potential spies and reinforce the authority…

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In New Interview, John Edwards Reveals All

Finally, John Edwards gives a candid interview about his extramarital affair.

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Good Georgia vs. Fascist Russia? Maybe it’s not that simple

From Mark Ames in The Nation: Up until now, this war was framed as a simple tale of Good Helpless Democratic Guy Georgia versus Bad Savage Fascist Guy Russia. In…

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More Hot Air From David Broder on Speaking Fees

David Broder answered questions from Washington Post readers today during an online chat, and was asked about his acceptance of speaking fees from private groups, a topic I first raised…

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Prayers Mistakenly Submitted

I have been spending some time lately with the Michael A. Lofaro Edition of James Agee’s novel A Death in the Family. The Lofaro was published earlier this year by…

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NBC: Nothing Bad about China

From the Washington Post: Political protests? Not on this channel; no sir. Beijing’s fearful pollution? Maybe, but only if a marathoner coughs up a lung or it spoils a beauty…

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The Mukasey Doctrine

Prior to his confirmation, Michael Mukasey fessed up, in a written response to Senator Dick Durbin, to a meeting the White House arranged with a group of movement conservatives. The…

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Weekly Review

Claiming that South Ossetian separatists had attacked its villages, U.S. ally Georgia sent troops to capture the city of Tskhinvali. Russia retaliated by sending ground troops into Tskhinvali, then into…

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“Shurshaschie in Buryane”

Here’s a sentence that stopped me this weekend: For a moment he seemed to be in control of the whirlpool that had seized hold of him; then a thick black…

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What Was Putin Thinking?

Note from a reader: Where on earth did Putin get the idea that he could just manufacture a non-existent crisis, invade a sovereign nation and overthrow its government just because…

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Georgia on My Mind

Today America’s media continues its love affair with a political star who has already faded from the stage, and fills out the balance of its airtime with stories from the…

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John Edwards Ends Fling With Anti-Poverty Center

Once upon a time John Edwards wanted to be president. “Poverty,” he said back then, “is the great moral issue of our century,” he told a group of students at…

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Milton’s Golden Compass

On heav’nly ground they stood, and from the shore They view’d the vast immeasurable Abyss Outrageous as a Sea, dark, wasteful, wilde, Up from the bottom turn’d by furious windes…

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