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Archive: Jun 2009

A Crisis in Theocracy

Several readers have asked what I meant in saying that “The myth of the Islamic Republic has been shaken by its roots.” Let me unpack this a bit. At the…

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Barack Hoover Obama

Kevin Baker has an excellent piece in the July issue of the magazine (available to subscribers) about the similarities between our current president and our thirty-first, Herbert Hoover: The comparison…

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Ensign Love Triangle

From Politico: The son of the couple at the center of the sex scandal that has engulfed Sen. John Ensign was being paid by the National Republican Senatorial Committee in…

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Links

President Barack Obama told the American Medical Association yesterday that he believes single-payer health care systems have worked “pretty well” in some countries, but no major U.S. newspaper available in…

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Ladies’ Men

From Politico: Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), whose name turned up in an investigation of an alleged prostitution ring in 2007, said Ensign was going through “personal difficulties they’re going through…

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Friend of Azeri Dictator Reportedly to be Named Ambassador to Baku

The indispensable Laura Rozen reported that Matthew Bryza, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasian affairs, “is being recommended by supporters as U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan.” Rozen…

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Russian Oligarch Retains Advisory Firm Close to Hillary to Help Resolve Visa Ban

Intelligence Online reports that the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has hired an advisory firm with close ties to Hillary Clinton to help him get a visa to enter the United…

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Partisan Politics and the Accountability Commission

Notwithstanding commanding support in Congress and with the American public, the creation of an Accountability Commission is now being held up by the Obama White House. Critics of the concept…

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William Jefferson’s Attorney: a degree in advanced chutzpah

From the Washington Post: Federal prosecutors laid out their bribery case against former U.S. representative William J. Jefferson yesterday, telling jurors that he squeezed hundreds of thousands of dollars in…

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The Ensign scandal: Did girlfriend double-bill for utilities?

From the Washington Post: Ensign is considered a leading voice among social conservatives in the G.O.P. In 1998, as a House member running against Reid, he called on President Bill…

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Obama a Very Smooth Liar

A version of this column originally ran in the Providence Journal on June 17, 2009. It isn’t quite fair to call Barack Obama a liar. During the campaign he carefully avoided…

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Links

The local authority has restored [Flint, Michigan’s] attractive but formerly deserted centre but has pulled down 1,100 abandoned homes in outlying areas. Mr Kildee estimated another 3,000 needed to be…

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Keep Guessing Who’s Coming to Dinner at the Obama White House

From MSNBC: The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn’t have to…

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The Fruits of Torture

Late yesterday further transcripts from Guantánamo emerged in the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act litigation. The Obama Administration reviewed and released a few new details from a group of hearings…

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Who Won in Iran?

It’s always so hard to know what’s really going on in places like Iran, given the combination of government repression/censorship and the Western-centric reporting of so many journalists. Ahmadinejad is…

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Glenn Beck’s Undistilled Looniness

“How do you look at Nazis and think they’re right-wing?” he asks. “We’re surrounded by people who want to control you.” The point of Beck’s raving–believe it or not–is that…

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Weekly Review

A Christian martyr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of Iran’s presidential election. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the election results a “divine miracle,” but fraud and voter irregularities…

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Links

WASHINGTON— President Obama took his health care overhaul proposal to one of its more skeptical audiences, telling doctors at the American Medical Association conference in Chicago that the United States…

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The Ghosts of Gitmo

One hundred and forty days into his administration, Barack Obama remains haunted by the ghost of Gitmo. Not only is the camp still open and operating, but Obama’s claims to…

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John Yoo’s Reckoning With Justice Draws Closer

On Friday, a federal judge in California handed down an important decision in a suit brought by law students at John Yoo’s alma mater, Yale University, against their most controversial…

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“The Crisis in American Medicine” Redux

In his speech before the American Medical Association on June 15, 2009, Barack Obama noted that there is nothing new about the challenges facing would-be health-care reformers: The other day,…

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Obama Energy Adviser: Brought to you by ExxonMobil

As Laura Rozen and I have reported, it appears that President Obama is soon to name David Goldwyn, an adviser to oil companies and dictators, to a key administration post,…

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Not Ready for Mt. Rushmore: The American Scholar looks at Reagan mythmaking

Just because it’s always good to look at the past with open eyes, here’s a new piece by Matt Dallek: Criticism of Reagan has been largely absent from the political…

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Keller’s Iranian Insights

The developments in Iran since Friday expose the country’s fracture lines. They have demonstrated graphically what some have contended for years, namely that there is a growing divide between its…

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Dryden/Handel – The Warrior’s Revenge

“War,” he sung, “is toil and trouble; Honour, but an empty bubble; Never ending, still beginning, Fighting still, and still destroying: If the world be worth thy winning, Think, O…

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Proust – Memory and the Foods of Childhood

Mais, quand d’un passé ancien rien ne subsiste, après la mort des êtres, après la destruction des choses, seules, plus frêles mais plus vivaces, plus immatérielles, plus persistantes, plus fidèles,…

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Links

From Harper’s: Larry Godwyn on Civil Rights in St. Augustine, Florida From “Anarchy in St. Augustine” in the January 1965 Harper’s Magazine St. Augustine was born of the sea, cursed…

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Is Secrecy on Drone Attacks Hiding Civilian Casualties?

From Inter Press Service: The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s refusal to share with other agencies even the most basic data on the bombing attacks by remote-controlled unmanned predator drones in…

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