Archive | September, 2007

Why haven’t we been attacked since 9/11? The Bush administration has suggested two main reasons: dumb and dumber. Argument #1: “we’re fighting them over there so they don’t attack us over here.” Yes, and the Tooth Fairy is real. This argument takes the prize for being both misleading and stupid, suggesting that Iraq’s civil war […]

Commenter DJR offers a good concrete illustration for my argument about emphasis: [1.] The plaintiff’s argument totally misses the point! Section 157 of the Act does not even come close to covering the facts of this case! [2.] The plaintiff’s argument totally misses the point. Section 157 of the Act does not even come close […]

Last year, on the day after the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Pope Benedict XVI spoke at Regensberg University, on the subject of Christian truth, and of Christian dialogue with other faiths, especially Islam. Although there has been plenty of media coverage of the Pope’s remarks, and of the reaction by Rage Boy and […]

I realize this is usually Jonathan’s topic, but I thought I would point out yet another remarkable divided Sixth Circuit capital habeas case, this one handed down yesterday: Garner v. Mitchell. I suspect this decision won’t be the last ruling in the case.   This opinion by Judge Moore, joined by Judge Martin, orders the state […]

Australian ABC News: Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said the US Government misinformed Americans and the world about September 11, echoing conspiracy theories about the terror attacks against the United States six years ago. In an essay read by a Cuban television presenter on Tuesday night, President Castro said the Pentagon was hit by a […]

Several comments about my 9/11 book SPYING BLIND raise a crucial question: can I really talk about the causes of 9/11 without commmitting hindsight bias? The answer is you bet. 340 reasons explain why. I was deeply worried about this question, so spent two years tracking what happened to every unclassified intelligence reform recommendation from […]

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen is reporting that NFL officials have concluded that the New england Patriots cheated in their season-opening victory over the New York Jets. According to the report, the Patriots used a video camera to tape the Jets’ defensive play-calling signals. Using video cameras to record the plays themselves is okay under NFL rules, […]

For a more systematic look at the common intellectual roots of European fascism and radical islamism, discussed in David Bernstein’s recent post, check out Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit’s book Occidentalism: The West through the Eyes of its Enemies. As the authors point out, both fascism and radical Islamism were heavily influenced by the nineteenth […]

When I first came across the term “Islamofascism” years ago, in a column by Christopher Hitchens, I was repulsed. It struck me as the usual knee-jerk leftist (and yes, I think Hitchens remains a leftist, though an unusual one) response to any ideology one doesn’t like–call it “fascist.” Last I heard, college libertarians were still […]

An exchange I heard a few months ago — I reproduce it from memory, so the account will not be precise, but I think I remembered the substance accurately: [Talk had turned to effective legal writing; B is a smart soon-to-be-law-student.] A. Another thing I learned about legal writing: Don’t use exclamation points for rhetorical […]

My post about the blogging scholarship drew a comment from Paul Horwitz: Why “U.S. Citizen?” Why not “U.S. Citizen or permanent resident?” I e-mailed the organizers of the scholarship to ask the question, and they promptly responded that, on reflection, permanent residents should be included. The revised Blogging Scholarship page reflects this. I should say, […]

Many thanks, Eugene, for inviting me to blog about the ghosts of intel failures past, present, and future. I thought I’d kick off by sharing my top 5 depressing findings about 9/11 from my new book — all confirmed by unclassified government documents or at least two government sources. 1. The FBI failed to find […]

Both Jan Crawford Greenburg and Matthew Drudge have sources telling them that Ted Olson is President Bush’s leading candidate for Attorney General and that an announcement may be coming soon. Stay tuned.

Marty Lederman highlights some key points from Jack Goldsmith’s book and a recent interview. For those of us who don’t yet have a copy of the book, it’s worth a read. As these excerpts illustrate, even those who are generally supportive of aggressive counter-terrorism measures and expansive constructions of executive power should have serious concerns […]

Eric Muller previews his forthcoming book, American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II on Is That Legal? here and here.