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Archive: Apr 2009

Presidential Accountability

The president ran a vigorous counter-terrorism program. With super-secret clearances, he caused terrorists and their helpers to be “disappeared” and tortured for intelligence value. Several of them died in the…

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Obama’s National Security State

Late on Friday, the Obama Justice Department filed an astonishing document with a San Francisco court. Seeking the dismissal of Jewel v. National Security Agency, a suit brought by persons…

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Politicians, Hookers and the Weekly Standard

From the Marathon Blog: The Weekly Standard sets a new standard for hypocrisy in this week’s Scrapbook column that attacks Eliot Spitzer for trying to rehab his image in the…

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Stevens Case Dismissed, Prosecutors Rebuked Again

The Associated Press reports on the tongue-lashing administered by Judge Sullivan to the Justice Department prosecutors in his court this morning as he dismissed the case against former Alaska Senator…

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Lock ‘Em Up

The prosecutors, that is. More evidence of gross misconduct by Bush-era Justice Department prosecutors, and this time the federal judge handling the matter is openly talking about sending them—not their…

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The Torture Doctors

This morning both the Washington Post and the New York Times take a close look at the February 2007 Red Cross report (PDF) dealing with the CIA’s use of the…

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Louis Freeh: What some people will do for money

From the Los Angeles Times Former FBI Director Louis J. Freeh says $2 billion that flowed from a British arms manufacturer to U.S. bank accounts controlled by Prince Bandar bin…

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More on $1 Billion Murtha-Connected Biodefense Facility

A few weeks ago, I reported here on a plan by Congressman John Murtha’s friends and campaign donors to obtain up to $1 billion for a controversial project to build…

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Potato Chips: Now with real potatoes!

A Frito-Lay spokeswoman, quoted in the Washington Post: For Frito-Lay, a focus on real ingredients is a new way to help consumers overcome their guilt about eating snack chips. Last…

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Weekly Review

An American cattleman. A 6.3 earthquake in the Abruzzo region of Italy damaged buildings in 26 towns, destroyed numerous historic monuments, left tens of thousands of people homeless, and killed…

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“Investigate and Punish the Perpetrators”

The Red Cross apparently thinks that a number of senior Bush Administration figures belong in jail. Its report on “high-value detainees” from February 2007 has just been published by the…

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Tricks of Demeanor and Speech

“How one pines for a translation of Proust by the hand of Nabokov,” wrote Christopher Hitchens a few years ago in a review of Lydia Davis’s translation of Swann’s Way.…

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Feds Exploring Congressman Visclosky’s Ties to Controversial Lobby Shop

The New York Times had a story over the weekend reporting that the feds are exploring links between Congressman Pete Visclosky of Indiana and the PMA lobby shop: Mr. Visclosky,…

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Congressman Joe Barton’s Favorite Charitable Cause: Joe Barton

From the Washington Times: The top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee operates a tax-exempt foundation that has raised donations from the industries his committee oversees, while giving…

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Civil Liberties Villain of the Week

The Guardian identifies the Civil Liberties Villain of the Week: a group of government lawyers that hides behind the face of anonymity as the “Department of Defense Privilege Review Team.”…

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In Brennan, Cheney has a Friend

In an interview with NPR’s Terry Gross last week, Seymour Hersh stated that Vice President Dick Cheney had “salted” the military and national security apparatus with trusted associates who were…

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Eichendorff–im Abendrot

Wir sind durch Not und Freude Gegangen Hand in Hand: Vom Wandern ruhen wir beide Nun überm stillen Land. [Read more…] Through trouble and joy we have walked hand in…

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Na Zdorovie

As I learned during a recent visit to Russia, it’s common to lay blame for every woe that Russians face—from the weather to the downturn of the economy—on the United…

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Mill on Coleridge

We do not pretend to have given any sufficient account of Coleridge; but we hope we may have proved to some, not previously aware of it, that there is something…

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Weekend Read: “He wanted the overtones as well”

This week, I’ve posted around the uncontroversial contention that literary criticism is nothing if it isn’t reading closely, quoting abundantly, and parsing carefully. In the course of commenting on such…

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The Report of My Demise Is Greatly Exaggerated

Senator Patrick Leahy rushes to say that he was misunderstood, and that he continues to push ahead seeking a commission to deal with the torture issue. “I am not interested…

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Universal Jurisdiction Blues

Anthony Clark Arend and Stephen Bainbridge offer some interesting comments on the Audencia Nacional’s decision to take up a preliminary review of a complaint involving six Bush administration lawyers (reported…

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Where’s the Financial Transparency Obama Promised?

This is an important story from Investors Business Daily: Accounting rule-makers on Thursday did all they could to make the nation’s credit nightmare go away — or at least go…

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Investigative Reporting Panel at Berkeley

Sorry for the late notice, but I’ll be appearing on an investigative reporting panel today at Berkeley. Details below: Investigative Reporting Seminar with Professor Lowell Bergman When: April 3, 2009,…

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Losing May Be Winning for Norm Coleman

From Politico: Even if Norm Coleman pulls off a long-shot legal victory in the extended Minnesota Senate race, Democrats are vowing to make him wish that he hadn’t. Separate and…

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First of the Alleged UBS Tax Cheats Charged

The guy is a yacht broker from Florida, which somehow comes as no surprise: Steven Michael Rubinstein, of Boca Raton, Fla., has been charged, via criminal complaint, with filing a…

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Geithner and Citibank: Helping a friend in need

Great story from ProPublica: Geithner, who maintained ties to senior bank executives and others in the financial world, had a particularly close relationship with former Treasury secretary Robert E. Rubin,…

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