Isaac Hayes & David Porter

Growing up in Memphis, I was lucky to work with some of the greats in the music business there. I once recorded for Estelle Axton, and at one time or another gigged with wonderfully talented sidemen who knew a thing or two about making great soul music.This NPR piece highlights two of my favorite writers from that era, David Porter and Isaac Hayes. This is fun stuff, folks.

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The Noose Tightens

Thanks to Jonathan Tepperman for this Newsweek exclusive.

"Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and author of "The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld," points out that over 20 countries now have universal jurisdiction laws that would allow them to indict U.S. officials for torture if America doesn't do it itself. A few such cases were attempted in recent years but were dropped, reportedly under U.S. pressure. Now the Obama administration may be less likely to stand in their way. This doesn't mean it will extradite Cheney and Co. to stand trial abroad. But at the very least, the threat of such suits could soon force Bush aides to think twice before buying plane tickets. "The world is getting smaller for these guys," says Ratner, "and they'll have to check with their lawyers very carefully before they travel." Jail time it isn't—but it may be some justice nonetheless."

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More Media Scandal; Whitewater Redux

Thank you, Jamison Foser, for this piece in Media Matters.

"To anyone who lived through the media feeding frenzy of the 1990s, during which the nation's leading news organizations spent the better part of a decade destroying their own credibility by relentlessly hyping a series of non-scandals, the past few days, in which the media have tried to shoehorn Barack Obama into the Rod Blagojevich scandal, have been sickeningly familiar."

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