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Archive: Feb 2009

Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!”

1 O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear,…

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Internal Justice Probe Lambasts Yoo and Bradbury over Memos

Remember those memoranda about torture that President Bush and Vice President Cheney both stressed they relied upon in deciding to torture prisoners? It looks like the Justice Department’s own ethics…

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Obama’s Lincoln Day Speech

On Thursday evening Barack Obama delivered a remarkable speech about Lincoln and his message in Springfield, Illinois. The speech got relatively little public attention, which is not surprising considering its…

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Did Murtha’s Favorite Lobby Firm Use Straw Donors?

From the Washington Post: Marvin Hoffman is listed in campaign finance records as one of the many lobbyists with the powerful PMA Group donating money to lawmakers. But Hoffman is…

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Vives’s Fable of Humankind

At hominem simul ac viderunt dii, amplexi fratrem ipsi suum. Indignum iudicarunt qui in scænam unquam prodiisset ludicramque exercuisset artem infamem. Et suam atque patris similtudinem non poterant satis exosculari.…

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Transitions

The Associated Press reports: Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning its tarnished brand name as it tries to shake a reputation battered by oft-criticized work in Iraq, renaming its family of two…

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Studs Terkel: “Radical conservative”

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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Holiday Weekend Double-barrel Weekend Read: “The skies of Genesis are watery,” & “I still liked to think of myself as approachable”

I should confess straightaway to an unseemly feeling of delight today, brought on by the wonders of the wonderful Web. This week’s posts on a sentence by the talented Joseph…

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What’s That in His Pocket?

From John Judis: There are many good things to say about the stimulus bill. But all in all, it wasn’t as good as it could be: It’s probably too small…

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Bring the Torture Team to Justice

By a margin of 2 to 1, Americans feel it’s time for an accounting of the Bush Administration’s illegal practices, including torture and warrantless surveillance. And 40% of Americans are…

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Plouffing the Press

From the Washington Post: It takes a certain amount of nerve to have an event at the National Press Club and then ban the press from covering it. It takes…

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Remembering the Real War President

Today is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, and it deserves to be commemorated in a fashion other than a shopping trip. He was America’s real war president, and he was also a…

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British Court Reopens U.S. Torture Case as Obama is Lobbied to Change Course

In two cases in the last year the British Government has represented to courts that continuation of proceedings that included allegations of criminal wrongdoing by British and foreign officials would…

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Lincoln–The Eternal Struggle

It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the…

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Joliet Jackhammer: New job for Blago?

From the Chicago Tribune: An unlikely suitor has stepped to the plate with a job offer for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The Joliet JackHammers, a Will County minor-league baseball team,…

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Tortured to Death

While Bush Administration torture-apologists continue to plead that the evidence cannot conclusively establish links between Rumsfeld Pentagon policies and the torture of detainees, the Senate Armed Services Committee concluded otherwise.…

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Why Are Justice Department Lawyers Defending John Yoo?

The Bush Justice Department rushed to defend John Yoo when he got hit with civil lawsuits brought by victims of the torture policies that he helped to author. Now the…

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“Pallin’ Around With Sarah and Bill”

Today is Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s 45th birthday. Three months after the electoral defeat of the McCain-Palin ticket, she remains a highly visible figure. For the Religious Right and other…

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Congressman Austria’s History Lesson

From the Columbus Dispatch, via Talkingpointsmemo: “When (President Franklin) Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression. He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use…

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Stars to Wish On

In my most recent post, I shared an exchange with a novelist friend about the work of the novelist Joseph O’Neill. When we left off, my friend wondered what I…

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An Australian Reporter’s Take on the Middle East

Interesting interview about Middle East coverage at Columbia Journalism Review with Sydney Morning Herald foreign correspondent Paul McGeough. A few excerpts: People keep repeating that Hamas’s charter is opposed to…

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Homeland Security TV: Be Very Afraid

This is new to me: the Homeland Security Television Channel, “the world’s first online, on-demand television network dedicated to homeland security and global development.” The channel is also “dedicated to…

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American Arms Sales to Iraq: Signs of a long stay?

From Eli Lake: As President Obama weighs options for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq, the country’s military is purchasing American helicopters, cargo planes and tanks equipment that typically requires…

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Former CIA Official on Engagement With Hamas and Middle East Peace

Yesterday I posted the first part of a conversation with Emile Nakhleh, former head of the CIA’s Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program and author of the new book, A Necessary…

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Lobby Firm Raided by Feds Has Deep Links to Democrats

As noted here last night, the FBI has raided a lobby shop, PMA, which is closely enmeshed with Congressman John Murtha, chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. According to Taxpayers…

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Secret Crimes

Binyam Mohamed is a 30-year-old Ethiopian who was granted political asylum in Britain in 1994. In 2002, he was seized by Pakistani authorities and turned over to American intelligence officials…

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