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A party is not, as classical doctrine (or Edmund Burke) would have us believe, a group of men who intend to promote public welfare “upon some principle on which they…

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The indictment of criminal complaint filed against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is getting ample attention on a number of fronts. The political entertainment value of the materials filed with the…

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Attorney General Mukasey claims that President Bush doesn’t need to worry about pardoning members of his torture team because they face no serious criminal exposure. His latest statement came as…

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As President-elect Obama works to make good on his promise to shut down Guantanamo Bay, including the military commissions system that his predecessor put in place, and which has become…

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And as I wake, sweet music breathe Above, about, or underneath, Sent by some Spirit to mortals good, Or the unseen Genius of the wood. But let my due feet…

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Today Glenn Greenwald at Salon does a good, but still not exhaustive, job of cataloging all of the reporters who have, in nearly identical language, rushed to the defense of…

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O Mittag, der mit heißem Heu mein Hirn zu Wiese, flachem Land und Hirten schwächt, daß ich hinrinne und, den Arm im Bach, den Mohn an meine Schläfe ziehe —…

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In 1798, the Federalists decided to silence an outspoken Democratic Congressman, Matthew Lyon, by prosecuting and imprisoning him. But the effort backfired. Lyon was reelected from prison, and in 1800…

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Mary Ellen O’Connell, a law professor at Notre Dame University, is a prominent voice in the legal community on international law and the law of war, and the author of…

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Allland syndt yetz voll heylger geschrifft Vnd was der selen heyl an trifft / Bibel / der heylgen vaetter ler Vnd ander der glich b?cher mer / In maß /…

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Harper’s cover story in the forthcoming January 2009 edition will carry a compelling account of the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush Administration, entitled “The $10 Trillion Hangover.” It’s co-written by…

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According the the AP, a group of prominent retired generals and admirals met with President-elect Obama’s transition team yesterday to demand that he act immediately to put an end to…

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On Wednesday, the New York Times had another psychotic episode. The paper’s editorial page has been an eloquent voice on the national stage regarding torture. But often enough the news…

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India has a long history of communal violence, but events rarely manage to attract the attention of the world’s press. The attacks in Mumbai, however, have been prominent because Americans,…

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According to a special operations intelligence officer, the answer is a number north of three thousand–not counting the tens of thousands maimed or seriously wounded, the destruction of the nation’s…

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Andrew Sullivan writing in the Times (London) puts the spotlight on what may be the first crisis of the Obama Administration, and in any event is the first to draw…

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The International Center for Transitional Justice has spent more than a year looking into how the United States can restore its good name on the international stage. Here’s the diagnosis:…

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About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters: how well they understood Its human position; how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or…

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Idcirco iam rebus omnibus (ut Moses Timeusque testantur) absolutis, de producendo homine postremo cogitavit. Verum nec erat in archetipis unde novam sobolem effingeretn nec in thesauris quod novo filio hereditarium…

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Like millions of Americans, I took a break yesterday to give thanks. For most of the past eight years starting with Thanksgiving 2001, I’ve had trouble identifying things to be…

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Today at a press conference in Chicago Barack Obama introduced his economic team. The market reacted by giving the president-elect a big kiss, with the Dow closing up about 400…

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In Brueghel’s great picture, The Kermess, the dancers go round, they go round and around, the squeal and the blare and the tweedle of bagpipes, a bugle and fiddles tipping…

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Note: this post initially stated that Caspar Weinberger was convicted of crimes related to the Iran-Contra affair. Mr. Weinberger was to have stood trial in 1993. But on Christmas Eve…

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???’???’ ????????? ?? ???? ???????… ?????????? ??? ?? ?? ????? ??? ????? ??????–???’ ?? ????? ???? ????????, ??? ?? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ??? ????? ????????? ?? ???????. ??? ???…

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For years, lawyers representing Guantánamo detainees have dreaded getting notice from the District Court in Washington that their case had been assigned to Judge Richard J. Leon. A conservative Republican…

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Reports are circulating this week that President-Elect Obama has interviewed Defense Secretary Robert Gates with a view towards inviting him to stay on in the Obama cabinet. This provides an…

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Lord Bingham, one of the English-speaking world’s most famous judges, just went into retirement, and used the occasion of his first public speech to lambast the Bush and Blair Administrations…

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No this is not a hoax. The indictment was handed down by a South Texas grand jury in Willacy County, the scene of some recent bizarre federal prison projects which…

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