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Archive: Feb 2009

Department of Bigotry Masquerading as Reporting

U.S. News & World Report offers its online readers a treat this week. On the “Washington Whispers” page, the news magazine asks its readers to participate in a snap poll.…

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Leonardo’s Human Microcosm

By the ancients man has been called the world in miniature; and certainly this name is well bestowed, because, inasmuch as man is composed of earth, water, air and fire,…

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A Quiet Pealing of Bells

I haven’t read much by Russian Booker Prize-winner Ludmila Ulitskaya, but it seems I’ve been remiss. A friend sent me this paragraph from “Sonechka,” translated by Arch Tait: And there…

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Our Voyage to Brobdingnag

Prepared introductory remarks for the Arthur N. Rupe Great Debate: Torture and the Law, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, February 19, 2009. This is my second…

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The Liberal’s Lament

Leon Wieseltier’s book Kaddish was hauntingly beautiful, and his style often borders on the elegiac. Sometimes, though, he risks being smug, which considering his talents is both understandable and infuriating.…

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Gain a Base, Lose a Friend

In an amazing op-ed in today’s Washington Post, Kyrgyzstan’s long-time ambassador to the United States gives us an inside look at the dealings that led to the opening of Ganci…

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Spin, Spin: From Diplomat to Bechtel

From Eli Lake: A just-retired U.S. diplomat who led negotiations that restored full diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Libya has taken an important job with Bechtel, a major U.S.…

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Turkmen Dictator Finds Help in United States

For my book Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship, I posed as Kenneth Case, a businessman with energy interests in Turkmenistan. A number of beltway…

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Is Phil Gramm Involved in UBS Case?

A reader e-mailed with an interesting question: Former Senator Phil Gramm is a senior executive with Swiss banking giant UBS. According to the information filed Wednesday in the criminal case…

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Beings, Things, Landscapes

“It was the day Michel Leiris died,” is the first sentence of Grégoire Bouillier’s second book, L’Invité mystère, finely translated as The Mystery Guest (MacMillan) by Lorin Stein. I had…

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Six Questions for Karen Greenberg, Author of The Least Worst Place

Karen Greenberg, the director of NYU’s Center on Law and Security, took a close-up look at the first hundred days in the life of the detention center at Guantanamo. What…

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Back to the Beach for Congressman Waters’s Husband?

A beltway insider with close ties to the State Department tells me that Sidney Williams, the husband of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, has expressed interest in getting back his old job…

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Clean Energy? A profile of oilman Ely Calil

I have an article in the March issue of the magazine about Ely Calil, a London-based international oil fixer (and friend, as I note in the story). Calil is one…

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Will Former Congressman Weldon Walk?

There’s a story making the rounds that former Congressman Curt Weldon will not be charged in a seemingly endless influence-peddling probe that dates back more than two years. “It has…

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The Enemy Combatant Canard

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison shared one definition of the term “tyrant”–a ruler who deprived a person of his freedom without operation of law and without accountability before a court.…

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Talks in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara

In Los Angeles on Wednesday, February 18 “Justice After Bush: A Conversation with Scott Horton” at UCLA Law School, Rm 1447, 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. In Santa Barbara on Thursday,…

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Jurists: War on Terror Tactics Have Undermined Basic Values

At a press conference in Geneva yesterday the International Commission of Jurists released the results of its three-year study of new policies adopted by the United States, Britain, and other…

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WellCare’s National Health Care Plan

I mentioned last fall that this scandal was likely to blow down the road: It looks like the eruption is coming, as AP reports now: While Florida politicians were considering…

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Did the White House Dictate the Torture Memos?

So, what, exactly, did President Bush mean when he told Larry King I got legal opinions that said whatever we’re going to do is legal. It may well have been…

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Charity For Poor Funnels Money to GOP

From the Athens Banner-Herald: Officers of a Monroe-based charity that is under investigation by federal authorities donated nearly $50,000 to conservative candidates and causes in recent years, Federal Elections Commission…

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A Real Vetting Problem: Japanese minister quits after “drunken appearance” at news conference

From AP, via Talkingpointsmemo: Japan’s finance minister abruptly resigned Tuesday over allegations he made a drunken appearance at a G-7 news conference, shaking Prime Minister Taro Aso’s already deeply unpopular…

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Obama Nominee’s Past Includes Botched Privatization of Uranium Company

Chris Hayes had a nice piece not long ago about President Obama’s nomination of Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). A long-time employee of Goldman Sachs,…

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Weekly Review

The House and Senate reached agreement on a $789 billion economic-stimulus plan, which President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law despite a lack of support from Republicans.New York…

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A Timeless Story, Beautifully Told

Dear Mr. Mason, As an avid reader of literature and an aspiring writer, I would like to think that I have a decent grasp of the elements that are common…

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Starr Charts Republican Strategy on Obama Judicial Nominees

Addressing a group of Mormon lawyers in Boston on Friday night Kenneth Starr charted the Republican strategy for dealing with Obama’s nominees for the Supreme Court. The Mormon Times reports:…

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Harper’s Index Turns 25: Now free for searching and browsing

“Numbers can be made to tell as many stories as a crooked lawyer or an old comedian.” — Lewis H. Lapham, Harper’s Magazine National Correspondent and creator of the Index…

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A Party of Natural Comedians

After a long dry spell, SNL came charging back in the 2008 campaign season with a series of hits, and last night they scored again with an internal analysis of…

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