From the Chicago Tribune: Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges. Blagojevich and Harris were accused of…
And as I wake, sweet music breathe Above, about, or underneath, Sent by some Spirit to mortals good, Or the unseen Genius of the wood. But let my due feet…
The Labor Department reported that 533,000 people lost their jobs in November, a further 621,000 people were forced into part-time employment, and 422,000 more simply dropped out of the labor…
A friend of mine is a bartender, and I hadn’t seen him for a while, until last week. It’s fun to watch him bring over two decades of experience to…
Today Glenn Greenwald at Salon does a good, but still not exhaustive, job of cataloging all of the reporters who have, in nearly identical language, rushed to the defense of…
O Mittag, der mit heißem Heu mein Hirn zu Wiese, flachem Land und Hirten schwächt, daß ich hinrinne und, den Arm im Bach, den Mohn an meine Schläfe ziehe —…
In 1798, the Federalists decided to silence an outspoken Democratic Congressman, Matthew Lyon, by prosecuting and imprisoning him. But the effort backfired. Lyon was reelected from prison, and in 1800…
Mary Ellen O’Connell, a law professor at Notre Dame University, is a prominent voice in the legal community on international law and the law of war, and the author of…
Allland syndt yetz voll heylger geschrifft Vnd was der selen heyl an trifft / Bibel / der heylgen vaetter ler Vnd ander der glich b?cher mer / In maß /…
Unlike painting, sculpture, dance, drama and music criticism, literary criticism is produced in the same medium as the one to which it responds. This is a complicating advantage: “complicating” because…
Harper’s cover story in the forthcoming January 2009 edition will carry a compelling account of the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush Administration, entitled “The $10 Trillion Hangover.” It’s co-written by…
Back in mid-September I noted here that a number of members of congress had accepted hefty campaign contributions from the American subsidiary of Swiss giant UBS. That seemed odd since…
David Sirota apparently won’t be supporting Chris Matthews if the latter decides to run for the senate in Pennsylvania: Having grown up outside of Philadelphia, I just want to say…
The latest news on Congressman Charles Rangel’s murky finances, from Politico: Between 2004 and 2007, Rep. Charles Rangel steered nearly $80,000 in campaign cash to an Internet company run by…
According the the AP, a group of prominent retired generals and admirals met with President-elect Obama’s transition team yesterday to demand that he act immediately to put an end to…
On Wednesday, the New York Times had another psychotic episode. The paper’s editorial page has been an eloquent voice on the national stage regarding torture. But often enough the news…
Suki Kim’s article “A Really Big Show: The New York Philharmonic’s fantasia in North Korea” appears in the December Harper’s Magazine. Kim is the author of the novel The Interpreter…
Just a reminder that the incomparable Scott Horton will be joined by a team of legal experts tomorrow at New York University, for a panel called “After Torture: A Harper’s…
That was fast. “I’ll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we’ll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs…
Most films are instantly forgotten. I don’t mean this in the gently figurative sense—that most films are not remembered. I mean that most films, in their onrush of vague and…
India has a long history of communal violence, but events rarely manage to attract the attention of the world’s press. The attacks in Mumbai, however, have been prominent because Americans,…
The recent New York Times‘s story on the tangled business interests of General Barry McCaffrey has resulted in heavy criticism of NBC News, where McCaffrey serves as a military analyst…
According to a special operations intelligence officer, the answer is a number north of three thousand–not counting the tens of thousands maimed or seriously wounded, the destruction of the nation’s…
An American cattleman. Gunmen terrorizedMumbai for more than two days, killing at least 180 people during attacks at a train station, a restaurant, two five-star hotels, a movie theater, a…
Andrew Sullivan writing in the Times (London) puts the spotlight on what may be the first crisis of the Obama Administration, and in any event is the first to draw…
The International Center for Transitional Justice has spent more than a year looking into how the United States can restore its good name on the international stage. Here’s the diagnosis:…
I posted an item earlier today speculating on the names of the five members of congress that Duke Cunningham briber Mitch Wade has discussed with federal investigators. Seth Hettena, who…
From Barry Lynn, a regular Harper’s contributor, at the Detroit Free Press: Viewed over the long haul, the all but complete bankrupting of the Big Three is a stunning event.…
A post-election story last month from Bloomberg identified health insurer UnitedHealth Group as a likely winner under the Obama administration. The company would “get more customers, including some they now…