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Archive: Apr 2009

Behind the Obama About-Face on Prosecuting Torture

White House spokesmen said on Sunday that there would be no prosecutions of those involved in writing legal memos or making policy that embraced torture. But on Tuesday, in the…

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Inside the White House Press Corpse

I’ve watched footage of the White House press corps engaging with press secretary Robert Gibbs on the Obama about-face on a torture investigation several times now. Sam Stein has a…

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NATO Allies Preparing to Go After Bush Officials on Torture

It’s not just Spain, apparently. The Washington Post’s Craig Whitlock finds that “European prosecutors are likely to investigate CIA and Bush administration officials on suspicion of violating an international ban…

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Woefully Too Small

Writers labor to make the visual world visible in fiction. There are many ways to do it. Here’s how William Makepeace Thackeray, age 33, made us see the world, in…

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To New York With Love

From Chris Lehmann: My ill-starred tenure at New York magazine was, among other things, a crash course in the staggering unselfawareness of Manhattan class privilege. Sure, there was the magazine’s…

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The World is Flatter

From the Washington Post: The global economic crisis has hit home for Tom Friedman. When the New York Times columnist married heiress Ann Bucksbaum in 1978, he joined one of…

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A Kinder, Gentler Torture

The Daily Show segment last night, which captured Bush administration apologists offering up their latest justifications for torture, was riveting television. A particular highlight: this exchange between Chris Wallace of…

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Behind the “Clean Coal” Blitz

From The Center for Public Integrity: They’ve put the black rock on billboards in the swing states, and they’ve splashed it on full-page ads in CQ Weekly, Roll Call, Politico,…

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The Chavez Uproar: Open Veins and Closed Minds

Eugene Robinson just won a Pulitzer, but like most commentators he doesn’t seem to have read the book, Open Veins of Latin America, by Eduardo Galeano, a copy of which…

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Impeaching Bybee—A Rocky Road

Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean takes a look at the calls for impeachment of Jay Bybee, and finds the road is pretty tough. Essentially, Dean believes that Bybee…

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Weekly Review

Caught in the Web, 1860. The Department of Justice released four Office of Legal Counsel memos, issued in 2002 and 2005, to address CIA concerns that interrogation methods used on…

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A Government of Monsters

Paul Krugman: Before I do some economics posts, I think I ought to say something about the torture memos — namely, that there is now no way to view the…

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Impeach Jay Bybee

The nation’s paper of record reviews the latest batch of torture papers and reaches the fairly obvious conclusion that a thorough investigation of this disgraceful episode should start with the…

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The Torture Tango

Much of the discussion of the newly released torture memos has focused, appropriately enough, on their content. But the circumstances in which they were prepared and the process that led…

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The Harman-AIPAC-Gonzales Triangle

Why did Jane Harman, the congresswoman from Venice, California, so well known for her devotion to intelligence, and particularly counterterrorism matters, who was poised to assume the chair of the…

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Congresswoman Harman and AIPAC: “This conversation doesn’t exist”

From CQ: Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would…

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Wolcott on the Media: The tweet smell of success

I disagree with James Wolcott’s main thesis here that the media is “wired” towards Republican power. The Washington media is wired for power alone (and perhaps a tinge of celebrity).…

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García Lorca’s Little Viennese Waltz

En Viena hay diez muchachas, un hombro donde solloza la muerte y un bosque de palomas disecadas. Hay un fragmento de la mañana en el museo de la escarcha. Hay…

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Revealing the Secrets in Room 101

On Thursday the spirit of George Orwell visited America, three times. The first visit can be found in four memoranda prepared by Bush Administration lawyers which gave the actual go-ahead…

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The New Torture Memos

A number of readers have written to ask why I have no post up discussing the new OLC memos. Be assured it’s in the works—check back later. Being on the…

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Polybius on State and Religion

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Weekend Read: “Sure as the stars return again”

A friend called the other day from a bench in New York’s Hudson Valley to report that the weather was, at last, perfect for reading outside. As his first book…

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Federal Raid on Lobby Shop Leaves Democrats Cash-Strapped

From the Washington Post: Three senior House Democrats revealed sharp declines in donations for the first quarter of 2009 after the shuttering of a lobbying firm that in previous election…

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More Reasons to Hate AIG

From ProPublica and the Los Angeles Times: Civilian workers who suffered devastating injuries while supporting the U.S. war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan have come home to a grinding battle…

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Panel: Liberalism, imperialism and the politics of human rights

Harper’s readers are cordially invited to attend a panel discussion in New York City, Sunday, 19th April, 12–2pm. Liberalism, Imperialism & the Politics of Human Rights Jacob Stevens (Chair)—Verso Books…

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Oil Über Alles

Five years ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by a number of major American energy firms operating in…

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State of Play: Congressional investigations

From the Washington Post: A House Democrat from Indiana has conducted an extensive audit of his political committees, after a lobbying firm that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for…

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