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Tag Archives: USA politics

Obama's War

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A talk by Tariq Ali in New York on Monday April 19th – organised by the London Review of Books [audio http://bedeutung.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/obamas-war-tariq-ali.mp3] If the player doesn’t work, click below: Obama’s War – Tariq Ali
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Yes, It Was Torture, and Illegal

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Editorial from The New York Times Bush administration officials came up with all kinds of ridiculously offensive rationalizations for torturing prisoners. It’s not torture if you don’t mean it to be. It’s not torture if you don’t nearly kill the victim. It’s not torture if the president says it’s not torture. It was deeply distressing to watch the [...]
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I Could Fix That

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by David Runciman from The London Review of Books In the final year of the last century, George Stephanopoulos, Bill Clinton’s one-time aide and press secretary, published a memoir of his time in the White House entitled All Too Human: A Political Education. Back then, it seemed like a terribly exciting book: 1999 was the year of [...]
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Obama's Troubles

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by George Packer from The New Yorker At every stop on my mini-book-tour for “Interesting Times: Writings from a Turbulent Decade,” someone asks a variation on the question of what’s gone wrong with Obama. Usually it’s asked in a tone of bewilderment verging on panic, as if the aircraft’s engines were shutting down one after another at [...]
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Human Rights in the 21st Century

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Speaker: Noam Chomsky Leading thinker Professor Noam Chomsky considers the state and future of human rights. Noam Chomsky is professor of linguistics at MIT. [audio http://bedeutung.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/chomsky_lse.mp3]
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Cheney FBI interview: 72 instances of can’t recalls

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by Pete Yost from Associated Press Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald famously declared in the Valerie Plame affair that “there is a cloud over the vice president.” Last week’s release of an FBI interview summary of Dick Cheney’s answers in the criminal investigation underscores why Fitzgerald felt that way. On 72 occasions, according to the 28-page FBI summary, Cheney [...]
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Chin Music

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by Louis Menandfrom THE NEW YORKER In 2008, half the people who watched the Fox News Channel were over sixty-three, which is the oldest demographic in the cable-news business, and, according to a poll, the majority of the ones who watched the most strident programs, such as Sean Hannity’s and Bill O’Reilly’s shows, were men. All [...]
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Obama’s Delusion

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by David Bromwichfrom the LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS Long before he became president, there were signs in Barack Obama of a tendency to promise things easily and compromise often. He broke a campaign vow to filibuster a bill that immunised telecom outfits against prosecution for the assistance they gave to domestic spying. He kept his promise [...]
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Entangled Giant

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by Garry Willsfrom THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS George W. Bush left the White House unpopular and disgraced. His successor promised change, and it was clear where change was needed. Illegal acts should cease—torture and indefinite detention, denial of habeas corpus and legal representation, unilateral canceling of treaties, defiance of Congress and the Constitution, nullification [...]
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