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October 24, 2005

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  • Editorial

    Ten Questions for Harriet Miers

    Corporate power and money control our lives and our politics as never before. As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares for Harriet Miers’s nomination hearings, here are ten legal questions worth pondering about corporations, individuals and the law.

    Morton Mintz

  • Oil-for-Food: It Worked!

    Conservatives have undermined the credibility of the United Nations by exposing corruption in its oil-for-food program. But the inquiry led by Paul Volcker didn’t look at the mishandling of billions of dollars in oil-for-food surpluses given to US occupation forces or the alleged looting of such funds by US companies.

    Ian Williams

  • Blank Check for Bush?

    Recent rulings upholding the right of the executive branch to jail and try terror suspects in military tribunals raise questions about whether the judiciary can keep presidential powers in check. Will a realigned Supreme Court give Bush a blank check to rise above the law?

    David Cole

  • Pat Tillman, Our Hero

    War hero and former NFL star Pat Tillman was not the GI Joe icon created by Pentagon spinmeisters. He was a fiercely independent thinker convinced that the war in Iraq was illegal. Bereaved military families, also angered at Pentagon exploitation of their loved ones, are joining the critical chorus.

    Dave Zirin

  • Time to Fix the System

    Tom DeLay’s indictments open the door for Congress to overhaul current lobbying laws and fix the broken system of campaign finance, redistricting and electoral laws that foster misconduct on both sides of the aisle.

    The Editors

  • Crony Constitutionalism

    Democrats have a chance to stand up for competence, civil liberties and the integrity of the Supreme Court by challenging Harriet Miers’s lack of credentials and blocking Bush from using the Supreme Court to expand presidential powers.

    The Editors

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  • Books & the Arts

    Lessons of Darkness

    A History of Violence examines one man’s attempt to protect his family from the murderers drifting into his small Indiana town. Good Night, and Good Luck presents a portrait of Senator Joseph McCarthy to a generation that knows him only as the front end of an “ism.”

    Stuart Klawans

  • Rearranging the Furniture

    For prose scholar Viktor Shklovsky, who lived by the code of style and studied its depths, an unhappy love affair can be as much a personal tragedy as a plot device for more writing.

    Elif Batuman

  • A Hero for Our Time

    Critics have been trumpeting Benjamin Kunkel as the voice of his generation. But his first novel, Indecision, about a 28-year-old empty vessel, is little more than an empty vessel itself.

    Mark Lotto

  • Why Is Africa Still Poor?

    As Asian countries grow in economic power, Africa lags behind the developed world. Can it ever catch up? Will corruption, geography and disease continue to hold it back?

    Andrew Rice

  • The First Time Was Tragedy…

    As the Bush Administration’s incompetence turns Iraq into a terrorist training camp, Americans should look to FDR, who waged war for unavoidable threats, not ideology, while still fostering good will among US allies.

    Eric Alterman
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