Professionals, Politicos, and Crony Attorneys General: A Historical Sketch of the U.S. Attorney General as a Case for Structural Independence

Historically, the office of the U.S. Attorney General has been identified as “quasi-judicial” or having “quasi-judicial” aspects. Other parts of the Department of Justice (DOJ) have also been described as quasi-judicial, such as the Office of Legal Counsel and the Solicitor General. A glance at a list of past attorneys general seems to confirm this judicial aspiration in practice. Nine attorneys general became U.S. Supreme Court justices, and others were notably judicious and professional in their tenure in the office. Of course, there are some infamous examples of unprofessional cronyism—the appointment of friends or associates to positions of authority, without properly considering their qualifications—but there are famous counterexamples of those who stood up to the presidents they served in defense of legal principles. The “insider” friend, fixer, or brother of the president was presumably the exception. But a closer examination of the history of the Office of the Attorney General reveals a surprising pattern: the nineteenth century had relatively few crony-ist appointments in an era known for patronage, but the twentieth century ushered in more partisan insiders, hacks, and fixers, just as the DOJ’s power grew enormously. This shift was remarkably bipartisan, starting under President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, and then continuing immediately after under President Warren G. Harding, a Republican. Perhaps this turn in the late 1910s started an era of partisan escalation as each political party pushed the norms as they rotated into power. This Article suggests that these trends have contributed to making the DOJ partisan and allowing some presidents to imagine the Attorney General as the president’s personal lawyer and fixer. In just over half of the past century, the Office of the Attorney General has been filled by a partisan insider

Altered expression of Alzheimer's disease-related proteins in male hypogonadal mice

Age-related depletion of estrogens and androgens is associated with an increase in Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain pathology and diminished cognitive function. Here we investigated AD-associated molecular and cellular changes in brains of aged hypogonadal (hpg) male and female mice. hpg Mice have a spontaneous, inactivating genetic mutation in the GnRH gene resulting in lifelong deficiency of gonadotropins and gonadal sex hormones. Western blot analysis revealed low levels of amyloid precursor protein and high levels of presenilin 1, amyloid precursor protein C-terminal fragment, and beta-amyloid 42 in brains of aged male, but not female, hpg mice. Changes were confined to the hippocampus and were not evident in the cerebellum or other brain tissues. Male hpg mice tended to have lower levels of IL-1 beta protein than male littermate controls. Immunohistochemical staining of the basal forebrain revealed that male hpg mice had lower choline acetyltransferase levels per neuron compared with controls. These AD-like changes specific to male hpg mice supports a link between androgen depletion and the development of AD pathology

Situando a Charlie “Bird” Parker entre Julio Cortázar y Juan Montaño. Una lectura de pertenencias (Homenaje)

Al comparar “El perseguidor” (1959) de Julio Cortázar con “Be Bop” (2008) de Juan Montaño del Ecuador, ponemos en debate la medida en que una conciencia de raza no solamente nos puede conducir a un determinado sentido de pertenencia, sino también a un proceso decolonial mayor de recuperación y reconstrucción capaz de alterar, cuando no transformar, nuestras identidades todavía racializadas.A comparative reading of Julio Cortázar’s “El perseguidor” (1959) and Juan Montaño’s “Be Bop” (2008) allows us to not only discern the extent to which race consciousness may lead to a definite sense of heritage, but also to a de-colonial project of recuperation and reconstruction capable of altering our racialized identities

El entenao, de Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco, y la afirmación de la cultura montuvia como componente integral de lo nacional (Del Fabulador)

El autor estudia el poema que Alfredo Pareja escribiera en 1935, El entenao, dentro del proyecto literario y social del Grupo de Guayaquil, ya que presenta los valores del montuvio y lo muestra como víctima de un sistema de justicia que ampara la usurpación y el abuso de los poderosos (el entenado es una figura de orígenes paternos inciertos, que simboliza el abandono y menosprecio con que se mira al montuvio). El proyecto del Grupo, a pesar del empeño y los esfuerzos investigativos -que incluyeron la mirada desde la arqueología-, quedó luego estancado en «lo folclórico», durante décadas. Por ello tiene sentido la publicación de la obra en 1988, cuando el país inició un nuevo proceso de definición de lo nacional- esta vez en torno a la interculturalidad-, la publicación coincide y contribuye con este segundo esfuerzo por integrar la cultura montuvia en el escenario nacional.The author studies the poem that Alfredo Pareja wrote in 1935, El entenao, within the literary and social project of the Guayaquil Group, as it presents the values of the montuvio and show him as a victim of a justice system that rewards usurpation and abuse of power (the stepson is a person indeterminate parentage, which symbolizes the abandonment and disdain with which the montuvio is seen). The Group's project, despite the investigative efforts-which included an archeological viewpoint-, which is later stuck in «folklore» for decades. This gives a bit of sense to the work's publication in 1988, when the nation redefined what was 'national'- this time embracing multiculturalism-, its publication coincides and contributes to the integration of montuvio culture on the national scene

Nelson Estupiñán Bass en contexto

Analiza las múltiples distancias y proximidades inherentes a la relación entre la escritura y la oralidad que marcan el contexto desde el cual se pretende leer a Estupiñán Bass y problematizar el sentido complejo de lo que constituye la literatura afro en el Ecuador y, por extensión, de gran parte de la diáspora afrolatinoamericana

Educating youth for entrepreneurship : national models and prospects for Detroit

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/96899/1/MBA_Handelsman_Amiel_Winter_1997Final.pd