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Archive: Apr 2009

Kudos for the Dark Side and “Torturing Democracy”

Tomorrow (Thursday, April 16) the 2009 Ridenhour Book Prize will be awarded to Jane Mayer for her definitive account of the Bush Administration’s descent into torture. The award ceremony is…

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Obama Wavering on Torture

Evan Perez and Siobhan Gorman at the Wall Street Journal: The Obama administration is leaning toward keeping secret some graphic details of tactics allowed in Central Intelligence Agency interrogations, despite…

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Why Cutting Weapons Programs Won’t Be Easy

Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s recent decision to cut big ticket weapons systems (even as he was increasing defense spending by four percent overall) was met with predictable howls of outrage…

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Bush Six to be Indicted

Spanish prosecutors decide to seek indictments against Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, David Addington, Jay Bybee, William J. Haynes II and Douglas J. Feith on charges that they conspired to introduce…

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Weekly Review

A Christian martyr. On the sixth anniversary of Saddam Hussein’s fall from power, tens of thousands of Iraqis loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr protested the continued U.S. occupation. “When America…

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Lodged Within the Heart

A great sense of occasion is present when a friend publishes a book, but there’s a particular pulse of pleasure I’m getting from the arrival of Erik Reece’s An American…

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Lobbying: More profitable, by far, than the cocaine trade

From the Washington Post: In a remarkable illustration of the power of lobbying in Washington, a study released last week found that a single tax break in 2004 earned companies…

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Corrupt Former Congressman Rested and Ready

Ready for talk radio: Three years after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges, former Ohio Rep. Bob Ney is back in the public spotlight. Ney will debut as a talk…

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Karl Rove’s G.O.P.

The Republican Party finds itself as thoroughly out of power as at any point in modern times. It has a new role: that of the opposition party. But the G.O.P.…

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The News Anchor

Charlie Brooker (of BBC Four’s Newswipe program) takes a look at the role of the news anchor/commentator on both sides of the Atlantic. Brilliant all around, and the take on…

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Upholding the Red Cross

On February 14, 2007, the International Committee of the Red Cross delivered a confidential report to John Rizzo, then as now the acting general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency.…

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Herbert’s Easter Wings

Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store, Though foolishly he lost the same, Decaying more and more, Till he became Most poore: With thee Oh let me rise As…

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Mason on Seidel

Wyatt Mason’s weekend reads are part of the rhythm of my life, but this week’s offering is a particular delight. Start with his post from Friday, Frederick Seidel, “A Poet…

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Brillat-Savarin’s Gastronomic Reconciliation

Effets de la gourmandise sur la sociabilité. La gourmandise est un des principaux liens de la société; c’est elle qui étend graduellement cet esprit de convivialité qui reunite chaque jour…

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Weekend Read: Frederick Seidel, “A Poet of Great Innocence”

Every day in America, on public radio stations across the land, a short program airs called “The Writer’s Almanac.” Hosted by the writer, musician and impresario Garrison Keillor, the show’s…

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The Crucifixion

Listen to sonata No. 10, “The Crucifixion,” by the Bohemian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, taken from the Rosary Sonatas (1676)…

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Obama’s Got a Secret

It’s funny how those who criticize sweeping exercises of presidential power suddenly take a different stance once they become president. Take Barack Obama. As a senator and constitutional law professor,…

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Licensed to Kill

Yesterday CIA Director Leon Panetta emailed thousands of subordinates his hearty greetings for Passover and Easter. Appropriate to the season, perhaps, his message was filled with talk of torture, foreign…

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Top Secret Plans, Get Yer Top Secret Plans Right Here

I noted here yesterday that Britain’s top counterterrorism official had been forced to resign after he was “photographed carrying a document that outlined details of a major antiterrorism operation.” Today…

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Congressman Joe Barton’s Campaign Investment Strategy

From CQ: Texas Rep. Joe L. Barton ’s campaign reported losing $703,500 in the financial markets last year. A large chunk of those stock market losses — $196,900 — were…

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Music for Passion Friday

Selections from Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion (1727) BWV 244 performed by the Münchener Bach-Orchester and the Münchener Bach-Chor, Karl Richter, conducting, Julia Hamari, solo soprano. No. 1: Opening…

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Pirates and the CIA: What would Thomas Jefferson have done?

“It was the sixth such attack this week and one of 66 this year by Somali pirates, a collection of shrewd businessmen and daring opportunists who have pulled off a…

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Britain’s Counterterror Chief: Quick but not swift

From the New York Times: Britain’s most powerful counterterrorism officer resigned on Thursday, a day after being photographed carrying a document that outlined details of a major antiterrorism operation in…

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Inside the AT&T–NSA “Secret” Relationship

In its submission to a San Francisco district court, the Obama Justice Department states that any disclosures concerning the relationship between AT&T and the National Security Agency would “cause exceptional…

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Lapsed Ethics at Justice

Attorney General Holder has responded to widespread public and judicial criticism of the lapsed ethics standards of the Justice Department by appointing a new head of the Office of Professional…

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The Red Cross Report and Manadel al-Jamadi

From Jeff Stein at CQ: There are 14 names in the confidential Red Cross report that surfaced last week on the CIA’s “ill treatment” of detainees. But you will not…

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Thursday Lamentations

Listen to a performance of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, composed in 1565 by Thomas Tallis, from a 1995 recording by the King’s Singers. The work was composed to be performed…

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