If you have access to The New Yorker, don't miss its revelations this week. Writer Yoni Brenner reveals that Thomas Jefferson bugged the White House with a recording system based on an ingenious system of ropes and pulleys. The tapes of James Madison's Oval Office discussions of the War of 1812 have just been released. In this excerpt, Congress wants to convince him to invade Canada:
Calhoun: They say Quebec City is just like Paris!
Madison: Right. If Paris had twenty-foot snowdrifts and smelled like wet fur.
