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Archive: Jan 2009

The Vulgar American Idiom

As the new year began (and following a year-ending week of memoir-bashing), I offered a short list of memoirs for which I maintain unreserved admiration. Alas, in the intervening days,…

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New Mexico Delusions

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page lectures us that the U.S. attorney’s scandal and the allegations about politicization of the Justice Department are all a bunch of “hoohah.” Their proof?…

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Moltke–The Duty of Conscience

Seitdem der Nationalsozialismus zur Macht gekommen ist, habe ich mich bemüht, seine Folgen für seine Opfer zu mildern und einer Wandlung den Weg zu bereiten. Dazu hat mich mein Gewissen…

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Countdown to End Torture

Today marks the seventh anniversary of the opening of George W. Bush’s Guantanamo concentration camps, which have stained the image of America around the world. Today, in gatherings of people…

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Prometheus the Bringer of Fire

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A Farewell to Dick Cheney

James Madison was the Founding Father most concerned with the prospect for abuse of power by the executive. He worried in particular that presidents in the future would wage war…

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Gitmo Guard Details Torture

On the BBC last night, Chris Arendt, a former military guard at one of the Guantánamo camps, detailed the routine torture of prisoners that occured there, including the “Frequent Flyer”…

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Spinoza – The Essence of Tyranny

If men’s minds were as easily controlled as their tongues, every king would sit safely on his throne, and government by compulsion would cease; for every subject would shape his…

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The Baseline

Back in the days when I was a lawyer representing mining companies (you may have noticed the absence of environmental advocacy in this space), we used to arrange, on acquiring…

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And If That Last Item On The Economy Wasn’t Depressing Enough

From Eric Janszen: Economic data coming out this week reveal an economy in free-fall. The Stats Every single working day in the month of December 2008: 190 U.S. companies filed…

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How Bad Is The Economy?

From John Judis: Does Barack Obama understand the seriousness of the economic crisis? Yesterday, he laid out his economic agenda, and it was filled with all sorts of important exhortations…

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The Hunger Artist

In today’s New York Times Adam Nossiter gives us the story of Greg Bartlett, the sheriff of Morgan County, Alabama, now ordered to jail by the state’s most senior federal…

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Coming Soon to the Washington Mall: The Bush Memorial

In his current TIME column, Joe Klein searches for the lowest of the many low points that George W. Bush offered the nation. “This is not the America I know,”…

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Scenes From Gaza

From the New York Times: The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it had discovered “shocking” scenes — including small children next to their mothers’ corpses — when…

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Regime Change or Assassination? The media mulls foreign policy options in Zimbabwe

I’ve mentioned here on previous occasions how the American media covers foreign news through the prism of United States foreign policy. If the U.S. government deems a country to be…

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Rules of Etiquette From the New Surgeon General: How to order tiger penis

Classic investigative reporting from Stephen Colbert, who takes us behind the scenes at CNN’s special report, “Penis in Peril.” Colbert also explains how Sanjay Gupta threatens America’s traditional food pyramid.

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The Case for Prosecutions

In an interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air,” British international law scholar Philippe Sands reviews the prospects for war crimes prosecutions of leading figures of the Bush Administration. Most likely to…

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Dennis Ross: Could he be a three-time loser?

From Augustus Richard Norton: Reportedly, two-time loser to be given a third chance to fail by Obama: Dennis Ross who was a dead-hand on the wheel as peacemaker in the…

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Kristol Meth

William Kristol gives thousands of Americans hope. He shows us that a mediocrity can find a home as a columnist at The New York Times. His latest column, discussing—well, what…

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Blackwater Arraignments

Quick note: I recently spoke with the Los Angeles Times about the arraignment of a group of Blackwater guards on federal charges arising out of the Nisoor Square incident. More…

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A Little Stroke of Luck

Yesterday’s mail brought the beautiful little book whose cover you see, with its sketch by P. Picasso of the wounded author–1,266 pages of Guillaume Apollinaire’s complete poems. The edition in…

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Jeffrey Goldberg on Palestinian “Moral Failings”

Stunning remarks from the man who helped sell the Iraq War. Jonathan Schwarz tells the story.

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Blair House Mystery Solved

When President-elect Obama and his wife and children asked permission to stay at the Blair House in the weeks before the inauguration so that their two children could start the…

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Bush Justice Department Continues Harassment Campaign Against Tamm

In “Tamm: Punished for Defending the Constitution”, I reviewed the story of Thomas Tamm, the career Justice Department lawyer who blew the whistle on the Bush Administration’s felonious surveillance of…

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Washington Post Takes Critical Look at Obama’s SEC Pick

When Barack Obama picked Mary Schapiro as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, her nomination was almost universally hailed in the press. Schapiro, it was said, was just the…

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Two Inspired Choices for the Intel Community

Yesterday, President-elect Obama announced two key members for his national security team: former Clinton chief-of-staff Leon Panetta to be director at the CIA and Admiral Dennis Blair to be national…

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Department of Bad Ideas

From Taxpayers for Common Sense: Of all the industries in line for a handout in this financially frightening time, the defense industry would seem to bring up the rear. After…

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