Archive: Sep 2009

The Associated Press reports: Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has decided not to bring criminal charges against a former Bush administration official who lawmakers said lied to them in…

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Before he was named as the administration’s special envoy on international energy, David Goldwyn advocated for closer ties to Stalinist Turkmenistan as head of the energy industry-endowed U.S.-Turkmenistan Business Council.…

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I was on NPR’s On The Media on Saturday to talk about conservative critics of the Obama administration’s health care reform bill who are arguing that legislation is being rushed…

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The headlines keep coming. In Afghanistan, security contractors are accused of running a bordello and requiring security guards to engage in lewd acts to secure promotions. In a criminal prosecution…

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Ya el oro natural crespes o extiendas, O a componerlo con industria aspires, Lucir sus lazos o sus ondas mires, Cuando libre a tus damas lo encomiendas, O ya, por…

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It is not proper for a man to accept as trustworthy anything other than one of these three things. The first is a thing for which there is a clear…

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Two Spanish investigating judges are pressing forward with their probe into the role that six Bush Administration lawyers, headed by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, played in the torture and…

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Those of us at Harper’s appreciate rudeness no matter who is in charge. See this wonderful essay by Mark Slouka from June 2008: [S]urely one could argue that the American…

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The Reuters’ headline says it all: “New York’s Sept. 11 museum to display hijacker perspective”…The current effort at what po-mo professors call “contextualization” will include photographs and quotations drawn from…

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From the indispensable Center for Investigative Reporting: Soon after hijackers obliterated the World Trade Center towers eight years ago, Marin County received more than $100,000 in surveillance equipment to keep…

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First off let me say that I’m not picking on Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina because he called President Obama a liar. I’m all for the breakdown of political…

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Former Marine Corps Commandant Charles Krulak and former CENTCOM Commander-in-Chief Joseph Hoar have a word for former Vice President Dick Cheney and his advocacy of torture. It’s “irresponsible.” Here’s what…

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Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, talks turkey in a fascinating interview with Andy Worthington: [T]he problem is that this is a national…

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From Readings: Jennifer Strange drinks too much water From “Too Much of Water Hast Thou” in Readings, May 2007. The case of Jennifer Strange is now on its way to…

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From Facing South: Rep. Joe Wilson is getting his 15 minutes of national fame after bellowing “you lie!” during President Obama’s health care address last night. But Wilson earned notoriety…

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From David Cay Johnston: This morning’s page-one Wall Street Journal story on incomes in America contains many bungled facts and concepts in a single sentence, giving a false impression about…

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From Wonkette: Republican Michael D. Duvall, a California state assemblyman representing Orange County, loves family values and ethics, and thus is a member of the Rules Committee…He enjoys telling his…

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What is the greatest threat to U.S. security? The greatest threat to U.S. security is something that would upset the usefulness of the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), the consolidated…

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From the Center for Public Integrity: For months, a cloud has swirled around Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, and the relationship that Murtha…

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From Huffington Post: The Federal Reserve, through its extensive network of consultants, visiting scholars, alumni and staff economists, so thoroughly dominates the field of economics that real criticism of the…

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Does the additional 2.5 grams of fiber convert this product to a health food? Whether Froot Loops really is a better choice than a doughnut, as the Smart Choices program…

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Obie Award–winning playwright and actor Wallace Shawn has just published a new book–a collection of articles and interviews entitled Essays. Suffused with Shawn’s signature irony and an inimitable style that…

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From Lindsay Beyerstein: One of the featured corporate sponsors of the Tea Party Express had to pay millions of dollars to settle lawsuits for its role in a bus fire…

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David Ayres was at the pinnacle of power and influence in the first four years of the Bush Administration. As Attorney General John Ashcroft’s chief of staff, he ran his…

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The United States military had a proud record of upholding the Geneva Conventions in the roughly fifty years that followed their restatement in 1949. Suddenly, beginning in 2002, it went…

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On Labor Day, a British court convicted a group of terrorists who plotted to bring down airplanes. Today, in a feature in The Times (London), Andy Hayman, the man who…

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An American cattleman. Polls showed that the level of public support for health-care reform was plummeting, a result of both Democratic capitulation–as when Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D.,…

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