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If the United States were a “normal” country, its profligate spending habits and the staggering debt it has amassed—habits of the current “war president” who reversed the prudent spending habits…

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How is the war in Iraq unlike any prior war America has waged? The course of the war has been strange. It went from invasion, to declaration of “mission accomplished,”…

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We must make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage. What we lack is a liberal Utopia, a programme which seems neither…

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The main question regarding Judge Mark Fuller’s behavior in the Siegelman case is whether it was appropriate for him to have taken the case in the first place. So I…

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When some one writes a history of the Bush Administration’s media bamboozlement—which will be an epic tome—I wonder how they will treat the entire saga of FISA evasions. It’s a…

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Suddenly there sprang into his mind, ready made as it were, the image of a certain Comrade Ogilvy, who had recently died in battle, in heroic circumstances. There were occasions…

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It’s reassuring, isn’t it, to learn that at an insiders’ conference of young conservative activists, former House Speaker and G.O.P. presidential wannabe Newt Gingrich is spreading the word that the…

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On Saturday, the Washington Post disclosed Alberto Gonzales’s “correction” to his July 24 testimony concerning Karl Rove’s political briefings. It turns out that such briefings did in fact occur, and…

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In the past two years, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota twice vetoed legislation to raise the state’s gas tax to pay for badly needed bridge repairs–including the interstate bridge that…

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I am yours! It will always be so! May your heart cool off for me May your understanding… compassion… I have experienced your great punishment … My Lady, I will…

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For the last week, we’ve been examining the role played by Judge Mark Everett Fuller in the trial, conviction, and sentencing of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman. Today, we…

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Earlier today, I noted Mike Isikoff’s report in Newsweek about the dramatic and highly repressive steps taken by the Gonzales Justice Department against Thomas Tamm, a former lawyer they evidently…

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Since I’ve spent so much time lately panning Newhouse newspapers, I should rush to note a positive example of exposé journalism from a publication owned by the S.I. Newhouse family.…

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Today the editors of the nation’s leading newspaper look at the evidence, and dare to state the completely obvious: One part of the Justice Department mess that requires more scrutiny…

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This weekend something of tremendous consequence happened. The attitude of the Bush Administration will likely be mirrored by that of the Democratic leadership: this is nothing, tend to your own…

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I am creating a language which must necessarily spring from a quite new conception of poetry, and I define it in these words: To paint, not the thing, but the…

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The Anniston Star has long been the voice of independent, serious journalism in the middle of Alabama. In today’s Star, I offer some comments on the Siegelman case—how justice went…

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Alexander von Zemlinsky, Eine florentinische Tragödie (A Florentine Tragedy), an opera in one act based on the play by Oscar Wilde Alexander von Zemlinsky, Der Zwerg (The Dwarf), an opera…

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Wisdom comes through suffering. Trouble, with its memories of pain, Drips in our hearts as we try to sleep, So men against their will Learn to practice moderation. Favors come…

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Last Tuesday Alberto Gonzales appeared and testified under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Of late one of the hot topics of discussion has been a series of political briefings…

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The Dog Ate My Homework, Week Two As of today, U.S. Attorney Mrs. William Canary begins the second week of explaining to the House Judiciary Committee that “the dog ate…

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The Bush-Cheney Administration will be remembered for decades for its shamelessly political manipulation of security classifications. A number of general themes have emerged. One is that when documents are stamped…

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An increasing number of Latin Americans can be found carrying out security tasks in Iraq: Peruvians guard the outer perimeter of a U.S. installation in Basra; Chileans protect the government…

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On Tuesday, I was having lunch with two friends and we came suddenly to talk about “The Life of Others,” the amazing film put together by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck…

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1 To what end goodness If the good are immediately struck down, or those  To whom they are good Are struck down? To what end freedom If the free are…

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It is completely absurd to suggest that a despotic government has no concept of the rule of law, but rests rather on the caprice of the ruler . . .…

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In the American criminal justice system, in a case presented to a jury, the trial judge is less a searcher in pursuit of truth than a referee. As long experience…

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Not to be missed in the August issue of Harper’s: a 1986 interview between Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard and Werner Wögerbauer, a teacher at the University of Nantes, translated by…

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