Archive: 2008

In Alabama, as we have noted, the public has been told that it faces a grave menace. No, it’s not crack dealers, organized crime, a drought, or even the failure…

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On Valentine’s Day the Bush Administration was out on a mission, straight from the Orwellian Ministry of Love. That ministry of course served in Nineteen Eighty-Four as the center for…

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Leñador. Córtame la sombra. Líbrame del suplicio de verme sin toronjas. ¿Por qué nací entre espejos? El día me da vueltas. Y la noche me copia en todas sus estrellas.…

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It is the iron rule in our day to require an object and a purpose in life. It makes us all parts of a complicated scheme of progress, which can…

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A few months I reported on internal disputes at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), where critics allege that President Andy Stern has been conducting a power grab. Ever since,…

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“I’m here three or four times a week,” Congressman Tom Price of Georgia told a small crowd last Thursday at the Capitol Hill Club, a private establishment for Republicans and…

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It’s been seven months since the Judiciary Committee subpoenaed White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers to appear and give evidence in connection…

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While working in London back in October, I had a chance to see the fabulous new production of Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ by Rupert Goold. The production has now crossed the Atlantic…

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Um noch über das Belehren, wie die Welt sein soll, ein Wort zu sagen, so kommt dazu ohnehin die Philosophie immer zu spät. Als der Gedanke der Welt erscheint sie…

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The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) makes it difficult to sue foreign governments in U.S. courts for crimes committed against American citizens, including murder and torture. The U.S. government has…

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In 2006, Harper’s and TPM Muckraker reported extensively on Trident Systems Incorporated, a Fairfax, Virginia-based firm that had an excellent record of winning federal earmarks with the help of Representative…

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In an item yesterday, Eric Alterman rated me as “America’s worst pundit” due to a line I wrote in the fall of 2006 which said that Barack Obama was already…

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The Department of Justice announced the following special course to staffers by special email; it was not included in the Continuing Legal Education course offerings that are available on-line. I…

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Nicholas Kristof, writing today in the New York Times, delivers us a Valentine straight from the Bush Administration’s Ministry of Love. Of course, you remember that ministry. It’s not filled…

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The great theorist of modern criminology, Cesare Beccaria, dispensed some simple advice. The lawmaker, he argued, should keep his focus on criminalizing those things which cause the gravest offense to…

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Some that have deeper digg’d love’s mine than I, Say, where his centric happiness doth lie; I have lov’d, and got, and told, But should I love, get, tell, till…

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While I write this letter, you are present to me as I am sure I shall be present to you, when you read it. We wear ourselves out with our…

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Cathy Allen is a Democratic political consultant and president of The Connections Group, based in Seattle, Washington. Her firm has worked for hundreds of successful political campaigns around the world,…

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Reed College Professor Darius Rejali is one of the world’s leading thinkers and writers on the subject of torture and the consequences of its use for modern society. Princeton University…

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Read top official’s resignation letter A few months back I reported on internal fighting at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), describing what looked to be a power grab by…

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The Framers designed a system of government in which the powers of the state are carefully apportioned among three branches, with the ultimate objective of keeping the eternal quest of…

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Esse non disarmano che i non inclinati né determinati ai delitti, mentre coloro che hanno il coraggio di poter violare le leggi piú sacre della umanità e le piú importanti…

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Supreme Court Justice Nino Scalia is a prominent critic of those who would turn to international treaties and agreements and to foreign law as authorities for resolving legal disputes.Scalia, who…

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Barack Obama doesn’t have the Democratic presidential nomination sewn up, but barring some very unexpected results tonight the odds seem to be moving in his favor. Obama has proved to…

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As Bush runs down to his last months as the nation’s chief executive, and his popularity continues to sink into hitherto unheard-of depths, his retainers remain concerned about the “Bush…

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Harper’s legal affairs contributor Scott Horton will make the following media appearances today: Interview with Stan Layne of ABC affiliate KPSI (Palm Springs, CA) to discuss the decision to charge…

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The following anecdote of the late President Lincoln has never been published, I think, and unlike, perhaps, some of the stories attributed to him, is an actual fact, for I…

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