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Archive: Jan 2009

The Heir Apparent in New York: At least she’s not an heiress

I don’t know much about Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, who has reportedly been named to fill Hillary Clinton’s senate seat. But at least David Patterson didn’t turn this into a political…

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Obama’s Promises: Seven down, about five hundred to go

For those keeping track of how Obama fulfills his campaign promises, the St. Petersburg Times offers a handy interactive guide. He’s off to a relatively good start, but there’s a…

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More on the Murtha-related Raid

The CEO of Kuchera Industries and Kuchera Defense Systems, the two firms raided by the feds yesterday, was the director of a non-profit group that the Washington Post described in…

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Feds Raid Offices of Firm Tied to Murtha

Congressman John Murtha’s relationship with his campaign donors is a topic I’ve written about frequently in the past. Today the FBI raided the offices of one of those donors: Federal…

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Love Exists, Love Exists

I have translated some poetry into English, and have felt fully the rather inevitable disappointment of rendering a line of limpid beauty into my own clunky music. One tries, and…

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Glinda Arrives at State

One thing seems clear regarding Condoleezza Rice’s stewardship of the State Department: she did not command the admiration of many of those who worked with her. The reaction of State…

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Did Bush’s Terrorist Surveillance Program Really Focus on American Journalists?

For the last several weeks, Michael Hayden, the former CIA director who previously led the NSA, has been sweating bullets. In recent press meetings he was a bundle of worries,…

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Clinton Foundation Donors and Hillary’s Confirmation

The Senate seems likely to confirm Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State soon, but there’s still a hang-up over contributions to her husband’s foundation. I’ve been trying to get answers…

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One Good Man Goes to Gitmo

Former New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias has been appointed as a JAG prosecutor for the Gitmo cases. Iglesias, a Native American and 24-year Navy veteran with the rank of…

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Obama Kitsch

Seth Hettena writes: How can you discuss Obama tackiness without mentioning this. Good point!…

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The Obama Doctrine?

Barack Obama’s inauguration speech had some nice moments. I especially liked the section near the end where he said: In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months,…

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The Road to Hell Is Paved with Stupid Celebrity Pledges

Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher and other stars make their pledges to Barack Obama. Low point, among many: Jason Bateman promises to flush “only after a deuce, never a single.” Is…

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The Catalog Factor: Why investors should buy newspaper stocks

John R. MacArthur is publisher of Harper’s Magazine and author of the book You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America. This column originally appeared in the…

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UN Rapporteur: Initiate criminal proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld now

In an interview on Tuesday evening with the German television program “Frontal 21,” on channel ZDF Professor Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Rapporteur responsible for torture, stated that with George…

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Lobbying The Inauguration

From the Washington Independent: In November, Obama announced that his presidential inauguration committee would not accept donations from corporations, lobbyists, political action committees, or unions. The move appeared to set…

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Langston Hughes – Freedom’s Plow

America! Land created in common, Dream nourished in common, Keep your hand on the plow! Hold on! If the house is not yet finished, Don’t be discouraged, builder! If the…

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New Hope for Justice

Today, Barack Obama has completed his choices for the Justice Department’s “brains,” and his picks provide good reason for hope that the old Justice Department—an organization of which all Americans…

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Forty-Four

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter…

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Seeger and Springsteen: This Land Is Your Land

Woody Guthrie’s celebrated song, as performed during the Inaugural Concert (captured as transmitted on German television, N24) featured the original, unexpurgated lyrics. A memorable event:…

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Whitman’s Democratic Vistas

I say that democracy can never prove itself beyond cavil, until it founds and luxuriantly grows its own forms of art, poems, schools, theology, displacing all that exists, or that…

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The Stars and Stripes Over London

London salutes the inauguration of Barack Obama by flying the Stars and Stripes at City Hall.

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For the Day on Which America Turns a Page

The spirit of the time is felt by every individual with some difference, — to each one casting its light upon the objects nearest to his temper and habits of…

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Long Time Comin’

Bruce Springsteen sings an anthem for the morning of the Obama Inauguration.

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Lincoln on the Need for New Beginnings

We can succeed only by concert. It is not “can any of us imagine better?” but, “can we all do better?” The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to…

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Weekly Review

Israel and Hamas agreed to a one-week ceasefire in Gaza, where Gazan officials estimated that 1,300 Palestinians had died.Hamas Agrees to One-Week Cease-Fire in Gaza Conflict“My grandmother was ill in…

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Olbermann Makes the Case for Prosecuting Bush and His Torture Team

In a “Special Comment” broadcast tonight, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann makes the case for prosecuting George W. Bush for war crimes. It starts with the prosecutor’s dream: he confessed already.

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A Legacy of Political Persecution

Under the administration of George W. Bush, the Department of Justice was converted into an extension of the Republican Party and its massive resources were redirected to serve the party’s…

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Recessional for an Exiting Tyrant

He entered Washington having lost the election by a decisive margin measured in popular vote, but with his fraudulent victory certified by his father’s friends on the Supreme Court. He…

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