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It’s widely accepted wisdom in Washington these days that the Republican brand is tarnished. But what’s striking is the regional variation. In the last fifteen years, although there has been…

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The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart gives us a recap, focusing on Neoconfederate Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL):…

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As head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, Jay Bybee issued a series of memoranda—rescinded by the Justice Department before Bush left office—purporting to legalize the torture and…

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For the last decade, Tom Donohue’s U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a nominally nonpartisan organization, has been the secret weapon of the Republican Party. U.S. Chamber of Commerce support for the…

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On October 1, federal judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that the Justice Department had to release records of Patrick Fitzgerald’s interview of Vice President Dick Cheney, conducted in the context of…

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If you enjoy fear-mongering, here’s a not-for-profit organization for you: Keep America Safe. William Kristol and Liz Cheney are the dynamic duo behind it. Cheney is just off a Sunday…

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The course to audit this semester at Berkeley would be Brad DeLong’s Econ 115. He’s been drilling down on the Great Depression and doing his best to extract lessons that…

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Matt Latimer’s Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor has been mined heavily for its disclosure of Bushisms about Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, but David Corn surveys its revelations…

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In a review-essay in the New York Review of Books, James Bamford discusses the latest monster-projects of the highly secretive National Security Agency: On a remote edge of Utah’s dry…

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The decision to award President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize produced a torrent of heckling from left and right. A consistent criticism is that Obama hasn’t yet acted as…

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la folie. Formons les plus brillants concerts ; Quand Jupiter porte les fers De l’incomparable Platée, Je veux que les transports de son âme enchantée, S’expriment par mes chants divers.…

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Il est triste que souvent, pour être bon patriote, on soit l’ennemi du reste des hommes. L’ancien Caton, ce bon citoyen, disait toujours en opinant au sénat: «Tel est mon…

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You might assume that in the American market economy, telecommunications service providers are private companies. But the Obama Justice Department, in a strange filing with a federal court in San…

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As Jim Moore explained, before making over George W. Bush, Karl Rove “created” Rick Perry—the man who succeeded Bush as governor of Texas and is now locked in a difficult…

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Is an Italian law that grants senior officials of the government immunity from criminal prosecution during the time they serve in office consistent with the Italian Constitution’s guarantee that all…

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A meeting of the House Intelligence Committee abruptly terminated this morning when Justice Department officials called to testify about their review of an internal CIA report on the 2001 shootdown…

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Barry Eisler’s novel Fault Line opens with a U.S. government hit team taking out an Iranian nuclear scientist on a visit to Istanbul. Eisler, a former covert operative for the…

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International summitry has attracted over the past few years an array of protesters. Some are peaceful, out to make a point about the lack of accountability of the international system…

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What a difference an election makes. The National Brand Index, a ranking of countries on the basis of their perceived position in culture, governance, people, exports, tourism, landscape and education,…

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We’ve just gone through the era of “What Would Jesus Do?” (WWJD) in which any social question was put through a test against scripture, as interpreted by the likes of…

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Cologne’s Wallraf Richartz Museum has launched an impressive new exhibition entitled “Vincent van Gogh: Shoes,” built around a celebrated painting by the Dutch master from 1886. Some might wonder how…

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“It is not disloyal to hold our officials to the highest standards of conduct.” That statement comes from a prosecutor near the end of the trial of a group of…

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Writing at Belief.net, Rod Dreher highlights a new initiative on the religious right: the Conservative Bible Project. The effort aims to rewrite the Bible to remove its notorious liberal bias…

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Who prop, thou ask’st in these bad days, my mind?– He much, the old man, who, clearest-souled of men, Saw The Wide Prospect, and the Asian Fen, And Tmolus hill,…

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After letting myself go lately on the depressing subject of military tattoos and tainted investments, I thought, as I often do, of a line of Matthew Arnold’s: “Who prop, thou…

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It’s worth diving into one of those 38 habeas cases to get a taste of the arguments that are being made. One decided late last week by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly,…

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For seven years, the Bush Administration told us that the prisoners held at Guantánamo were the “worst of the worst.” These are the kind of people who would chew through…

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“I came to the conclusion very soon that this probably wasn’t the right way to go. Probably before I left Guantanamo, I was of the opinion it needed to go…

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